At least three firefighters were left dead after a series of huge wildfires ravaged through north-central Washington.
The giant wildfires affected a massive area of 355 square miles of the Okanogan Complex on Saturday, which is absolutely bigger than the area covered on Friday by around 100 miles more.
While the Okanogan Complex fire reaches near the size of the Carlton Complex fire that occurred last year, County Sheriff Frank Rogers of Okanoga said it is still too early at this point to release an official total number of homes that have been burned. As a preliminary tally, Rogers said that the fire caused three families to lose their homes and that 33 other structures were also lost.
"They'll take weeks," said Rogers. "I know we are going to have quite a few. These fires are burning only one or a handful of homes at a time, not entire neighborhoods. It's not 45 or 50 in one spot."
According to the Washington Emergency Management, the wildfire burned a total of 590,000 acres across Eastern and Central Washington by Saturday afternoon. The Washington National Guard will be joined by 200 more Guardsmen, bringing their total number to 700.
In bringing out the wildfire, about 276,000 gallons of water were used with the help of Blackhawk helicopters. Other states such as Colorado, Wyoming and Minnesota have promised to bring in some help. It is expected that 10 Blackhawks would be present to help contain the fire by Sunday.
Brad Craig, a resident of Omak and one of the evacuees, said that he felt the need to come back to his house several times to check.
"I was coming over several times a day to check on it," said Craig.
Craig recalled how he, together with the help of firefighters, had to fight back the flames that were approaching his home. The huge flames, found to be almost 30 yards away from the deck of his house, were successfully contained.
"I'm feeling a whole lot better than I was three hours ago," added Craig.
Apart from the casualties, four firefighters were reportedly injured after being overtaken by the flames while battling against the wildfire in Okanogan Complex. There was another firefighter who suffered from burns that covered more than 60 percent of his body. He was brought to the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle under critical condition.
In a bid to accelerate the firefighting efforts, around 50 volunteers went to Omak City Hall in order to start with the training on Saturday. Most of the volunteers were either loggers or ranchers who also own heavy equipment. Part of their training includes a briefing on fire safety and deploying emergency fire shelters.
