Needle Creek Fire (Mazama)

[Uncle_Tricky]

People are now being evacuated from the areas NW of Mazama. Fire has grown from a few acres to 15,000 in the last 5 days. The view from Sun Mountain up valley towards Mazama/Goat Peak:

[mattp]

Thanks for the update. The smoke in the upper Methow Valley was so thick the last few mornings that you couldn't see accross the valley and the fire trucks and helicopters were racing up and down the valley about every hour or two, though I talked to a firefighter this afternoon who said that the fire had not really threatened the homes up there yet. Did it blow up today?

[catbirdseat]

From Liberty Bell, we could see one fire to the south and four fires to the north and northeast. I sure hope we get some rain soon.

[Uncle_Tricky]

My understanding is while the fire is not directly threatening any homes, it's close enough that it could make a run if conditions were right (or wrong in this case). So as a precaution mandatory evacuation notices were issued this afternoon for the Lost River area west of Gate Creek up the road from Mazama. The fire has apparently burned across the Harts Pass road, and within 1 mile of the USFS structures up at Harts pass.

 

More info and updates here

[erik]

it has also jumped the ridge and is burning towards the hiway!!!

that is of 530.

 

 

 

[Alpinfox]

 

These images taken from Hwy20 near Klipchuck campground the night of Sept 7, 2003. They don't do the spectacle justice... Some of those flames are over 100ft tall!

 

 

 

 

 

[klenke]

The plume and self-produced towering cumulus above this fire was quite impressive from Cutthroat Peak on Saturday. From our vantage, it was billowing up almost directly behind Tower Mountain, making that mountain appear as if it were on fire. What was that movie? The Towering Inferno. "The Tower's on fire! The Tower's on fire!" As the day progressed, the billowing smoke intensified greatly. I'll see if I can post a photo tomorrow.

 

The atmosphere around Rainy Pass was a miasma of smoke as we descended from Cutthroat. It looked like a pea-soup fog bank. As we descended to below about 6,200 ft, we found ourselves in a slight respiratory distress. Good thing we weren't climbing up at this time, as the heavy breathing would have surely given me a headache.