8/16/2015 Baldy Fire Update

Ione, Wash. – Nearly a half-inch of rain fell near or on the 515-acre Baldy Fire and 25 lightning strikes hit near its perimeter last night as a thunderstorm moved over the Pend Oreille Valley.  The rain, though considered a wetting rain, was not enough to put out the still-smoldering large fuels in the fire interior.  The Baldy Fire will become a part of the new Kaniksu Complex of fires that includes several small fires near Sullivan Lake and the Tower Fire burning atop South Baldy Mountain, 20 miles north of Newport, Wash.

The Washington Interagency Incident Management Team #4 (Brian Gales, incident commander) will transfer command of the Baldy Fire to the Alaska Black Team (Thomas Kurth, incident commander) tomorrow morning at 6 a.m.  Fire suppression activities for the Kaniksu Complex will be conducted from an incident command post to be established at the Kalispel Indian Reservation Pow Wow Grounds, 1981 Leclerc Rd, Cusick, Wash.

A small contingent of firefighters will remain at the Selkirk High School north of Ione, Wash., to patrol and monitor the Baldy Fire which is now 72 percent contained and the new starts northeast of the Baldy Fire.

Firefighters and equipment are being demobilized and reassigned to fires throughout the State of Washington.  Helicopters will remain near the Baldy Fire for air support of new fires.  There are still hot spots in the interior of the Baldy Fire, but they pose no threat of spread outside containment lines in the cooler, wetter conditions. 

The size of the Tower Fire was estimated during a reconnaissance flight yesterday to be 5,761 acres. Fire crews established an anchor on the southwest corner of the fire and will be continuing these dozer lines today on the south and west flanks of the fire. It is 1 percent contained. The Tower Fire has been managed from the Newport Ranger District office by a Type 3 incident management team from northern New Mexico.