Monday Morning Update: Cougar Creek Fire Now 38,000 Acres, Level 1 Alerts Posted

The Cougar Creek Fire expanded to about 38,000 acres overnight and is 35 percent contained with more than 1,000 firefighters on site. Public Information Officer Mike Reichling says they are watching the red flag conditions this afternoon.

"Our concern is the low relative humidity, the weather system that's over us right now. I'm looking over at the flag right now and we've got winds coming out of the North-Northwest."

Winds are expected to gust to around 15-20 MPH.

"This topography; the mountains, the valleys, are very challenging when it comes to the wind because it can be blowing one direction on one side of the slope and the opposite direction on the other side causing a whirling effect."

There's a public information meeting Monday at Plain Community Church beginning at 6:00 p.m.

The Chelan County Emergency Management issued a series of changes to Evacuation Notices over the weekend;

Effective 6:00pm, Sunday, 8/19/18, the Level 2 notification on the Entiat River Rd at Mad River Rd was lowered to a Level 1. The area between Crum Canyon and Mad River Rd is no longer under any evacuation status. Level 2 evacuation status is in place from Stormy Creek MP 16.6 to the end of Entiat River Rd.

As of 2:30pm on Sunday, 8/19/18, a Level 1 (BE READY) Fire Advisory Notification was put in place for the following areas:

• Chumstick Road north of Merry Canyon (both sides of the road)
• Merry Canyon; Second Creek and Moon Canyon
• Community of Plain, including Ponderosa Estates, Plain River Rd and other subdivisions
• Chiwawa Loop Road to include Chiwawa River Pines
• All of the Fish Lake and Lake Wenatchee areas to Coles Corner