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50-acre fire quickly contained near Ephrata

JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 1 month AGO
by JOEL MARTIN
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | August 23, 2025 4:05 PM

EPHRATA - A fire broke out Saturday morning between Moses Lake and Ephrata but was quickly knocked down, according to Grant County Fire District 5 Battalion Commander Travis Svilar. 


“About 8:20 this morning, we were dispatched to a brush fire in the 700 block of Road 9 Northwest,” Svilar said Saturday afternoon. “Units arrived on scene and we had about a 50-acre wildland fire, heavy sage, threatening some residential structures.” 


GCFD 5 requested mutual aid from GCFD 13, which responded with brush trucks and water tenders.  


The fire was contained in about an hour, and crews moved into mop-up, Svilar said. The cause of the blaze was unknown, he said. 

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