Pullman firefighters returned home late Thursday after helping fight wildfires threatening homes in Central Washington for several days last week.

Pullman Fire Chief Mike Heston got a call at about 8 p.m. on June 26 to respond to the Sutherland Canyon fire in the counties of Chelan, Douglas and Grant. From that day to midafternoon on Thursday, he and his team battled the blaze from Wenatchee to Quincy, a distance of about 30 miles.

This was the first wildfire Heston responded to this year.

“Typically, fire season’s July 1, with the Fourth of July,” he said, “but fires in June are not uncommon now.”

The Sutherland fire had burned just under 30,000 acres and was 90 percent contained Sunday, according to an Incident Information System news release.

The fire burned in conjunction with the 8,500-acre Straight Hollow fire, which was at one point last week within a quarter mile of connecting with the Sutherland fire, said Jacob Welsh, a public information officer for the Northwest Incident Management Team 11. The Straight Hollow fire was also 90 percent contained as of Sunday.

Heston said they evacuated some areas where the fire threatened structures, but it did not damage any of them. The firefighters did, however, face other challenges. The fire burned in protected areas, such as the habitat of sage-grouse, an endangered species. He said they made this a high priority.

Recent wet seasons also gave the fires a lot of vegetation to burn through.

“With all the rains and snow we had this [year],” Heston said, “the fuels have grown four times higher than normal.”

Red flag conditions, during which winds reach 20 mph, humidity is below 20 percent and temperatures are above 80 degrees, also contributed to the quick spread of the fires in the Wenatchee area, Heston said.

Combined with the 100-percent-contained, 8,700-acre Spartan fire, which burned east of the Columbia River in Chelan County, three Washington wildfires have burned across almost 47,000 acres since June 26. Investigators have determined that lightning strikes caused all three, Welsh said.

Those who responded to the fires included local, county and private contractors from Pullman to Olympia, Heston said. The state’s Department of Natural Resources and Bureau of Land Management also provided firefighting forces and trucks. About 400 personnel fought the three fires, according to the Incident Information System July 1 news release.

The firefighters in the area are patrolling potential hot spots where fires could spark and aiding in mop-up and repair operations, according to the July 2 news release. This includes building water bars to limit erosion and fixing fences cut during the firefighting.