No one hurt in small blaze near Snake River

May 15—High winds caused a small brushfire along the Snake River in Whitman County on Monday afternoon.

Dylan Peters, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the agency's natural resource maintenance crews were routinely cleaning out fire pits along a shore between Wawawai Landing and Granite Point when winds blew hot coals into nearby grass.

Brush along the waterline was set ablaze and burned less than a tenth of an acre.

Crews had no obvious indication the fire pits were still smoldering, Peters said. They followed standard procedure by bagging ashes for disposal, which were not hot to the touch. Underneath the cooler material, he added, embers were picked up by strong winds.

"They followed proper policy and procedure," Peters said. "They addressed the situation within their scope."

Whitman County Fire District 14 volunteer firefighters from Colton and Uniontown were called to the small blaze. Peters said crews extinguished the fire before emergency responders arrived.

Firefighters remained at the scene to ensure winds wouldn't reignite the blaze, he added.

Peters said beginning June 10 campfires along the river will be banned. This is an annual occurrence that doesn't relate to the incident, he said.

"Obviously, this demonstrates the dangers of how easily fires can spread," Peters said.

To his knowledge, he said no one was hurt during the blaze.