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EVERETT, WASHINGTON
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■ Firefighters from military, Canada, East Coast on standby ■ Resources spread thin with widespread fires across West
Fire surrounds Chelan
A good problem to have The shrinking number of young offenders at the Denney Juvenile Justice Center is prompting discussion of how to adjust expectations and resources. By Noah Haglund Herald Writer
A DC-10 air tanker drops retardant over Chelan as a wildfire moves through the area.
PHOTOS BY MIKE BONNICKSEN / THE WENATCHEE WORLD
Reach Fire grows to 60,000 acres By Jefferson Robbins The Wenatchee World
CHELAN — Roads blocked and unblocked, shifting evacuation orders, an electrical outage, and an oppressive veil of smoke and ash kept Chelan on high alert as the summer’s latest complex of wildfires encircled the city Saturday. Now dubbed the Reach Fire and handled by the management team that’s been engaged with the nearby Wolverine Fire, the fast-spreading wildland blaze erupted Friday after multiple lightning strikes and destroyed an estimated 50 to 75 structures around the southeast rim of Lake Chelan. The Reach Fire began as five separate blazes, and grew together to an estimated 60,000 acres by Saturday and spotted widely, including embers that crossed the Columbia River and set fuels ablaze in McNeil Canyon in Douglas County. As evening fell, firefighters’ focus was on a segment of the complex known as the Cagle Fire, which sent a large
The fire burns a fruit warehouse off Highway 150 near Chelan.
plume of smoke up over Union Valley by 10:30 a.m. and forced all residences in that area to a Level 3 evacuation status. But fire managers from the National Interagency Fire Center said as the Western wildfire season has reached extremes, with almost 800,000 acres burning in 10 states, it’s put a strain on their manpower and support. “There are no more shower units,” deputy incident
commander Rob Allen said in a Saturday press briefing. “There are no more catering units. A lot of what we rely on to come in and give us a hand is being used.” Military units could soon mobilize to attack high-priority fire zones, Allen said, and firefighters from Alaska, Canada and the East Coast are set to join the fight. Beyond that, Australian and New Zealand firefighters could also be recruited.
Allen’s team shifted over from the Wolverine Fire on Saturday morning to assume command of the Reach Complex. Fire crews that had been monitoring Stehekin were boated downlake to assist, he said, and now Chelan is a priority for national fire response. “Fires that have a big impact on communities, like we have here, See CHELAN, Page A6
EVERETT — The beds sit mostly empty at Snohomish County’s juvenile lock-up. Here and throughout Washington, fewer young offenders are doing time behind bars as the criminal justice system has sought better solutions. As a result, the number of children in the Denney Juvenile Justice Center has dwindled since it opened in 1998. On any given day last year, the 124-bed facility in north Everett housed an average of 27 young detainees. That’s down from a peak daily population of 82 in 2001. “As much as we thought 15 years ago that we would need this bed space, juvenile justice has changed,” said Marilyn Finsen, the administrator for Superior Court, which oversees Denney. The positive trend has created quandaries: What to do with a juvenile detention building and staff that are larger than the county needs? When county officials decided in the 1990s to build a new juvenile justice center, they expected needs there to grow along with the county’s population. The $24 million building on 10th Street replaced a facility from the 1960s that appeared to be maxed out. Complaints at the time included graffiti-covered cell walls See DENNEY, Page A6
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