Ryegrass Coulee Fire in Mop Up Stage

The mop up work continues on the 1,600 acre Ryegrass Coulee wildfire near Vantage. Information officer Randy Shepard says crews are reinforcing the containment lines to make sure a 50 to 200 foot buffer has been established around the fire "they want to make sure everything within that band is cool and for structures that are adjacent or within the burned area, it would be 200 feet cold black around those"

Shepard says Fire supervisors believe those objectives will likely be achieved by tonight and the Type 3 Incident Management Team could turn over control of the fire to Kittitas County Fire Districts and begin demobilizing on Thursday.  The fire is at 50% containment but that figure is expected to increase significantly later today.

The Town of Vantage and residents within one mile of the interstate on Huntzinger Road remain under Level 1 alerts.

The fire did not damage any park infrastructure at Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park.  The park is open and Washington State Parks plans to re-open Wanapum Recreation Area this evening at 5 p.m.