A wildfire that emptied Okanogan County towns has destroyed 31 structures

A wildfire that forced Level 3 “go now” evacuations across Loomis and rural areas west of Tonasket has now destroyed 31 structures, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center’s situation report dated September 24. The Sinlahekin Fire has burned 166,007 acres in Okanogan County since a lightning strike ignited it on July 26, and the same report puts it at 93% contained, nearly two months after it first cleared out the valley communities in its path.

Level 3 orders that emptied Loomis and rural Tonasket

The fire’s first major evacuation push came late on July 29, when Okanogan County Emergency Management issued Level 3 notices for residents on Cecile Creek Road near Loomis and Lemansky Road on Tonasket’s western edge. Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste authorized state firefighting resources that day at the request of three fire chiefs from Okanogan Fire Districts 4, 9 and 10, a step that brought a Northeast Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team onto a fire that was still only about 9,000 acres with zero containment.

Within days the evacuation zone widened well beyond that first order, eventually stretching from the Canadian border south to Ellisforde and emptying homes along Toats Coulee, Gold Hill Road, Loomis and Pine Creek, according to Wikipedia’s timeline of the fire. Smoke from the burning valley reached into Ferry and Stevens counties and across the border into southern British Columbia.

A fire that tripled in a single day

Growth after that first week was extreme even by the standards of a dry Cascades summer. The fire measured 2,313 acres on July 28, then jumped to 31,887 acres by August 1 before doubling again to 73,794 acres within 24 hours. It topped 100,000 acres by August 4, climbed past 150,000 acres by August 12, and reached 154,162 acres at 44% contained by August 18. The national situation report now lists 166,007 acres and 93% containment, meaning the fire has added only about 12,000 acres in the five weeks since mid-August while crews more than doubled the containment line.

The response scaled up just as fast as the fire did. The Northeast Washington team that took command on July 26 handed off to Cal Fire’s CIMT 4 on July 30, and personnel assigned to the fire grew from 183 on July 29 to 445 within two weeks and eventually to 1,731 by mid-August. The Washington National Guard joined the effort on August 11, flying UH-72 Lakota helicopters for aerial observation in what the Guard described as its first use of that aircraft in that role.

Structures confirmed lost as containment closed in

Officials could not put a firm number on property losses in the fire’s early, fastest-moving days. On August 1, with the fire barely 5% contained, a California incident management team representative told KPQ that “numerous structures have been destroyed,” while acknowledging she could not yet provide an updated count beyond the two confirmed at that point. The fire’s chaotic terrain, described elsewhere in the same period as rolling boulders, falling dead trees and steep rocky ledges, kept damage assessment teams from reaching some burned areas for days at a time.

That uncertainty has since resolved into a fixed figure. The September 24 situation report lists 31 structures lost on state land, a tally that now stands as the fire’s official damage count even as containment closes in on 100%. No injuries or fatalities have been reported over the fire’s nearly two-month run.

Evacuations stepped down as containment lines held

As firefighters gained ground through August, emergency managers began reversing some of the Level 3 orders. Several zones near Tonasket were reduced on August 9, and by mid-August the areas west of Okanogan County Highway 7 north of Tonasket had been downgraded from Level 3 to Level 2, according to Wikipedia’s timeline of the incident. Loomis itself remained under close watch even as containment climbed.

Some restrictions have outlasted the evacuation orders entirely. Okanogan County’s active incidents page still lists Chopaka Road as closed, and the county continues to direct residents to sign up for county alerts and check the Central Washington Fire Information Facebook page for daily updates rather than assume the fire is finished.

What began as a lightning strike in the Sinlahekin Valley on July 26 has, in the two months since, forced thousands from their homes, tripled in size within a single 24-hour stretch, and left 31 structures gone. With containment at 93% and climbing on the September 24 report, Okanogan County’s emergency managers are treating the Sinlahekin Fire as nearly closed rather than closed outright, a distinction the county’s continued road closures and alert systems are still built to reflect.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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