User:Kevmin/sandbox/White Mountain Fire (1988)

The White Mountain Fire was a wildfire in Ferry County, Washington in the Kettle River Range, east of Republic, Washington. The fire was started by multiple lightning strikes in the upper reaches of Hall Creek drainage in August. Due to manpower shortages the fires escaped early containment and grew together to become the White Mountain fire, which then started the northern Sherman fire. That was initially considered a separate fire, but rapidly was rolled into the White Mountain Complex. The fires reburned portions of the 1929 Dollar Mountain Fire including sections in 1929 called the "White Mountain Fire".

Background
Much of northern Ferry County is dominated by temperate coniferous forests maintained by the Colville National Forest and as private land. The forests at the lower elevation are mixed Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, which intergrade into mixed Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, and western larch at mid-elevation and finally into mixed Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and lodgepole pine forests at the highest elevations.

The Kettle River Range had a history of large wildfires preceding the White Mountain Fire. In 1929 the Dollar Mountain Fire burned an estimated 98,000-142,000 acres along the eastern slopes of the Kettles including areas where the White Mountain Fire later occurred. In the wake of the Dollar Mountain fire the network of Colville National forest resources including Fire lookouts devoted to fire spotting and suppression was improved and expanded upon.

When possible, the lookouts were placed so two sites would have overlapping views to help in pinpointing fire locations. The height of lookout building and use ran between the 1930's and 1950's, with between 660 and 685 permanent lookouts by 1953. In the decades between the 1950's and 1980's fire lookout use waned, with the Forest Service and county transitioning more to areal reconnaissance with airplanes combined with automated cameras installed at former lookout sites.

The 1988 fire season for Western north America started early and was intense, with news and resources focusing on the Yellowstone fires that had started in June.

Fire
The fire was started by multiple lightning strikes associated with a Dry thunderstorm drifting northeast across the Colville national Forest on August 23. The overnight passage ignited six different fires in the upper reaches of the Hall Creek drainage basin, southwest of Sherman Pass. Control of the fires was first attempted by smokejumpers based out of Winthrop, Washington, with forest service ground crews drawn from the Kettle Falls and Republic stations. Due to conditions during the day however, none of the fires was contained. Combat of the fires continued over the next week with little success and they merged within a few days. After the first day a call was put out for a Type 1 incident management team, the highest management level, along with ordering more crews and resources. Due to the Yellowstone fires, the available resources which were requested were slow to become available.

Work on August 30 was aided by low winds which had prevailed over the week resulting in slow fire growth. With the fire at 2500 acres and considered fully contained on August 29, some crews were diverted to the smaller Barnaby Creek fire, considered 15% contained, Bald Mountain Fire, 30% contained and newly ignited Snow Peak fire. The total personnel allocated to the various fires of the complex was 742, with 350 on the fire and the others resting.

Hot dry winds on Sept 2 resulted in "blow outs" along two different fronts of the fire complex and grew the fire to 4,700 acres,an increase of 1000 acres. Due to heavy smoke for the fires on White Mountain and Snow Peak, Washington State Route 21 was closed between Pine Grove, Washington north to the Canadian Boarder closures and 20 restrictions due to smoke. Due to similar conditions Washington State Route 20 between Washington State Route 395 on the east side of Sherman Pass and Highway 21 at Pinegrove in the west was restricted to local traffic only.

By the morning of September 4, the major fire had split, with the southern White Mountain Fire and a new Sherman Fire to the north. Initial treatment by fire management was to treat the two as separate fire groups with the total complex encompassing 7,500 acres, over double in size from September 2 when it had almost been contained. Winds on the 3rd allowed fire to jump the fire lines on 2 sides and also cross over Highway 20. Due to the growth of the fires in a westerly direction to within 10 mi of Republic, a number of rural houses between Sherman Pass and Republic were evacuated. An evacuation plan was also created for the 1,000 people in Republic proper on the possibility the fires continued growing westward. At the same time the fire grew to within 0.5 mi of the Bonneville Power Administration high voltage utility line which supplies the only power into northwestern Ferry County and parts of far eastern Okanogan County. About 600 people were assigned to the two fires and a request was put out for 400 more.

The fire growth over the next 24 hours took its size up to 12,500 acres and management officials deemed the complex too intergrown to treat as separate blazes. As such they renamed the whole group the White Mountain Complex, and the fires were intense enough to send both smoke and ash over Republic. Firecrews working on firelines had extended containment around approximately 45% of the complex and in doing so removed to immanent possibility of Republic being evacuated. The fire had not moved closer to the Bonneville Power Administration powerlines but the administration was staying prepared to cut power at any point if needed. With low winds during the day, the fire had a fleet of four helicopters preform water drops on the fire while 840 personnel were on the ground.

By September 15 the White Mountain, south 17 and two other fires in the area were all contained and crews were performing "clean up operations" on the burns aided by fall weather conditions. The White Mountain complex as a whole had cost $6 million at that point to contain and stood at 21,162 acres. The areas where the easiest containment were along old logging cuts and roadways, as they provided reduced fuel sources or breaks in the fuel. As of September 16th around 1,200 people were involved in the mop up work which was winding down. With the final work finishing, the overall cost of the White Mountain Complex was around $6.5million.

Aftermath


Oliver, C. D. (1994). Eastside forest management practices: historical overview, extent of their application, and their effects on sustainability of ecosystems (Vol. 3). US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.

Western Larch stands comprising numerous saplings and a few mature adults were seen by 1995. The fire also destroyed full stands of mature subalpine fir, with the sand areas being taken over by Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, and western larch.