Brush fire, haystack blaze cap busy weekend

by Mark Morey
Yakima Herald-Republic

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Lower Valley firefighters wrapped up their Independence Day weekend by fighting a brush fire that briefly edged near the Yakama Nation transportation department’s vehicle yard at the end of Elm Street in White Swan.

Almost.

As that call was winding down, a haystack fire started in the 7200 block of Lateral B in the Harrah area. Weather conditions prompted a request for help from Upper Valley firefighters to keep related small fires from spreading downwind.

A hop kiln fire Friday evening in the 6500 block of Progressive Road near Harrah resulted in the biggest incident of the weekend.

About 20 residents in farm worker housing were displaced when the fire, believed to have been started by someone playing with fireworks, spread to the residential buildings.

The White Swan fire started Sunday afternoon and consumed  40 to 60 acres, said Deputy Chief Kevin Frazier of Yakima County Fire District 5. No homes were threatened.

Frazier said the weekend was busy for firefighters in the district, which covers the unincorporated areas of most of the Lower Valley.

Most of the fires involved brush, but an exact number of incidents or the acreage consumed were not available on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday was relatively calm, but calls picked up around 2 a.m. and noon on Sunday, Frazier said, adding at least a couple of the fires were thought to be intentionally started.

Sgt. John Durand of the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office said one person was arrested for a fireworks-related fire that damaged a house on Orchard Way in the Wapato area. That was one of a half-dozen fireworks-related arrests by deputies, who responded to more than 50 fireworks calls on Saturday.

The fireworks incidents were spread across the county,  but Durand said many nontribal residents didn’t get the message from the sheriff’s office that it was illegal for them to light fireworks on the Yakama Nation reservation.

In other holiday activity, state troopers arrested eight drunken drivers between Friday and noon Sunday, authorities said.



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