The company said its primary use will be by industrial customers such as utility companies and railroads, but can also be used at residential and commercial properties.

Google Maps is making it easier to find the latest information about wildfires as part of a push to ensure the immensely popular app is more useful during emergencies.

If you had to rebuild your town, where would you begin? It’s a question that residents of Malden, Wash. have asked for months. One year later, this town’s struggle to rise from wildfire ashes continues.

Firefighters are hoping the cooler weather in the forecast will help them gain more containment on the Schneider Springs Fire. The fire is now at 19% containment.

Ian Rickert, acting fire management specialist with the Bureau of Land Management Oregon-Washington State office and the United States Department of Agriculture/Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region office said in a late August report that there are still areas of Washington and Oregon that still have a considerable distance from being in the clear as high temperatures and low humidity continues to affect those regions.

Thousands of wildfires ignite in the U.S. each year, and each one requires firefighters to make quick decisions, often in difficult conditions like high winds and lightning. Crews and managers must determine when to bring in aircraft, what time of day is best to battle flames, whether to evacuate residents and even if certain fires should be extinguished at all.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Washington State Department of Natural Resources said fires that started over Labor Day weekend accounted for more than 70% of all acres burned in the state in 2020. The fires ravaged the town of Malden and burned 283 homes and more than 600,000 acres across Washington. Smoke from the wildfires temporarily gave Western Washington the worst air quality in the world. To avoid a repeat of last year, Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz is asking for the public’s help to prevent wildfires over the holiday weekend.

As wildfires have burned throughout the Northwest this summer, some forest stands have fared better than others. Managers say that’s thanks, in part, to thinning and prescribed burns, which have made the stands more resilient in the face of wildfire. “What we’re trying to do is get our stands into the structure of what they used to be,” said Pat Ryan, Northeast region state lands assistant manager with the Washington Department of Natural Resources, referring to an era when forests were less dense.

The Twenty Five Mile Fire is now burning almost 10,000 acres at Lake Chelan north of Wenatchee. It’s also threatening more than 720 homes with evacuation notices, with many of them at the highest level where people are asked to leave immediately. Ryan Rodruck with the state Natural Resources Department says the weather this weekend could present a challenge to firefighters.

CONCONULLY – The Muckamuck Fire flirted with Conconully and cleared out the town on Sunday, Aug. 15, but flames were kept at bay and, as of Monday morning, were headed toward West Fork Salmon Creek. The blaze is one of more than a dozen burning in Okanogan and Ferry counties.

A large, new portion of the Twenty-Five Mile Fire at Lake Chelan is now under the most intense evacuation status. The length of 1st Creek Road, which is west of Lake Chelan State Park, is under a Level 3 (Go Now) condition, as is most fire’s footprint along and east of Lakeshore Road to the north

Strong winds on Monday led to fire growth in central and eastern Washington that prompted new mandatory evacuations and burned homes, fire officials said. A fire northwest of Spokane that started Sunday near the town of Ford caused residents to scramble to leave their homes on Monday, The Spokesman-Review reported.

FORD, Wash. — The Corkscrew Fire in Ford, Washington destroyed 20 buildings, including eight homes, as it grew to more than 13,000 acres. The fire is located 16.5 miles west-southwest of Deer Park. It's being called the Corkscrew Fire and is burning in timber, grass and brush. This has caused several evacuations in the area.

Even if you can’t smell it, that doesn’t mean it’s not impacting you. “Your nose is not a good tool,” said Emily Fischer, an atmospheric scientist and associate professor at Colorado State University.

A wildfire raced through more than 6,000 acres Monday east of Ford and filled the horizon north of Spokane with a wall of smoke. Fire officials called for the immediate evacuations of Ford and several communities as fire threatened hundreds of buildings.

The region's hot, dry conditions are hampering efforts to put out wildfires. One of those is burning in Stevens County. It started in a building near Ford yesterday afternoon.

Last September, we shared an article about the benefits of controlled burns and other Indigenous practices for wildfire management and mitigation. Now, the Bootleg fire in Oregon is offering up some more evidence to support that Indigenous practices could be lifesaving in a climate change-fueled fire future.

Smoke visible in the Leavenworth area reported by KPQ listeners is being linked to the Nasom Fire at Lake Wenatchee. Lake Wenatchee Fire and Rescue says ash has been falling on homes along the south shore as the fire is growing on the west end of Nason Ridge, above Rainy Pass. It’s still seven miles from homes along the lake and is being managed by the U.S. Forest Service.

LAME DEER, Mont. (AP) — A wildfire bore down on rural southeastern Montana towns Thursday as continuing hot, dry weather throughout the West drove flames through more than a dozen states. Several thousand people in Montana remained under evacuation orders as the Richard Spring Fire advanced across the sparsely-populated Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

SPOKANE – Fire restrictions are being extended on public lands administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management Spokane District and the Bureau of Reclamation in eastern Washington. The temporary ban was renewed Aug. 7 in Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Walla Walla, Whitman, and Yakima counties.