The Cougar Creek Fire, which is centered 21 miles northwest of Entiat, has now pushed past 40,000 acres in size.
The wildfire’s current official acreage is listed at 40,105 after another day of minimal spread on Wednesday (August 22). The blaze has been moving predominantly to the west and north over the past week. Firefighters were able to conduct a successful round of burnout operations on the fire’s western flank until the early afternoon when windier conditions halted those efforts.
Aerial support was also heavily utilized yesterday for the first time in nearly a week thanks to a diminishment in smoke levels around the fire. Public Information Officer Mike Reichling tells iFIBER ONE News that as many as eight helicopters dropped over 280,000 gallons of water on the wildfire’s western perimeter.