Nisqually John fire expected to be contained by Saturday morning
Over 1,300 acres burned, cause of blaze still undetermined
DYLAN GREENE | THE DAILY EVERGREEN
A fire crew looks for any remaining hot spots at the Nisqually John fire near the Snake River in southern Whitman County on Friday afternoon.
July 6, 2018
The Nisqually John fire along the Snake River in southern Whitman County is expected to be completely contained by Saturday morning.
The fire which started Wednesday afternoon has burned about 1,350 acres, said Lonnie Click, Incident Commander for the Southeast Washington Incident Management team.
Click said they plan on having the fire, which currently stands at 80 percent containment, fully-contained Saturday morning.
“We’re shooting for full containment tomorrow morning,” he said.
Click said Whitman County fire resources will take over the containment efforts Saturday. A cause has not yet been determined, but Click said it was a “suspicious fire with an unknown origin.”
In all 130 people worked on containing the fire, with some of that coming from state assistance, he said. Four aerial resources were also committed to the fire on Thursday but were not used Friday.
No structures were lost during the blaze, but Click said the largest threat was to agricultural resources such as farm and range land.
A creek near the Snake River runs through a canyon that has been sprayed with fire retardant at the Nisqually John fire Friday afternoon.
