Keller evacuated as Swawilla Fire doubles overnight

Bob Valen sent us the time-lapse video above, condensing an hour of smoke and cloud formation above the fire into 30 seconds, shot from across Lake Roosevelt above the Sring Canyon area.

Keller evacuated, fire doubles overnight

With a wind shift, Colville Tribal Emergency Management early Wednesday called for a Level 3 (Go Now) evacuation of Buffalo Lake and McGinnis Lake areas, Belvedere and Seaton's Grove as the fire grew rapidly toward the northwest.

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Even as residents met with firefighters for evening community meeting at the Keller Community Center to update them on the fire status, the fire grew outside enough that Keller was told to evacuate immediately. That was about 7:30 p.m.

Earlier in the day, authorities had published the analysis of Fire Behavior Analyst Eric Trimble. Computer modeling taking into account factors of forecasted weather, dry fuels and the topography of the fire area, that analysis said, "the fire will impact the communities in and around Keller, Washington" in the next two to three days.

The main north-south route out of town, highway 21 was closed in both directions, but the Keller Ferry would resume limited operations to get evacuees out of the area. It was still operating to take that one-way traffic only (north to south) across Lake Roosevelt.

An evacuation shelter was opened at Lake Roosevelt Schools in Coulee Dam late Monday night. As of Wednesday afternoon, two families were using the space.

Large and Very Large Tankers, air support requested before Tuesday, arrived Thursday morning, adding to aircraft already on the fire including three small scooper planes and two helicopters.