Winds spread fire Sunday night

WARDEN - A wildland fire burning 1,750 acres of private land near the Seep Lakes area of Warden was considered contained on Tuesday.

"We had some crews out watching last night and checking for hot spots, but that's about it," said Rick Sucee, a spokesperson with the Northwest Washington Incident Management Team.

The fire was turned back over to the Warden-area Grant County Fire District No. 4 at noon on Tuesday, Sucee said.

One hundred and thirty state firefighters came to Grant County to help with the blaze after about 15 local firefighters from fire district 4, Grant County Fire District No. 5, Ephrata, Quincy and Moses Lake responded.

A helicopter dropped water on the fire, Sucee said.

Sucee said there are no flames at the fire scene, just a few hot spots.

Lightning strikes were expected Monday, but didn't hit near the area of the fire, he added.

"That's good, it's very dry here," he said.

Much of the burned land included sagebrush.

He commented on how well the local fire districts and visiting firefighters worked together in a team effort.

The brush fire started on Sunday night, apparently triggered by a rollover vehicle accident. The five people in the vehicle were brought to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake and later released.

When fire district 4 fire crews initially arrived Sunday, the blaze burned 25 acres.

They fought the fire for three hours and "we felt we had the fire 80 percent contained," stated district 4 Chief Randy Wiggins.

But wind came up and spread the fire. Other area districts responded and at 1:30 a.m., Wiggins considered the fire out of control after 1,000 acres were destroyed.

The state incident management team was brought in to help.

Wiggins thanked all of the responding firefighters and the state patrol for their help and the Warden School District for allowing crews to stay on campus.

No one was injured in the fire and no buildings were damaged.

An evacuation order for about 100 people living nearby was lifted Monday morning.