Washington state wildfire threatens homes, farms and gas pipeline

Washington state wildfire threatens homes, farms and gas pipeline

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SATUS, Washington, July 22 (Reuters) – A fast-growing wildfire forced residents to evacuate a rural part of Klickitat County in southern Washington state on Saturday after burning more than 30,000 acres in less than 24 hours.

The Newell Road wildfire has already destroyed several structures in the area and threatens homes, farms, crops and livestock, solar and wind farms and a gas pipeline, county emergency officials said.

Officials were to brief reporters later Saturday in the nearby town of Bickleton, a community of about 80 people about 120 miles (190 km) east of Portland, Oregon.

Firefighters from across the region descended on the blaze burning just north of the Columbia River, which marks the state’s border with Oregon. Authorities did not specify the cause of the fire and no injuries or deaths were reported.

Reporting by Matt McKnight in Satus, Washington; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Paul Simão

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Matt McKnight is a visual journalist based in Seattle and covers the Pacific Northwest, as well as stories across the Great American West. Beyond daily and breaking news coverage, his work focuses on environmental and political issues in the United States. He has been a reporter covering stories in the American West since 2010 and was previously on staff at Crosscut, a nonprofit newsroom associated with Seattle’s PBS station. McKnight is a longtime member of the National Press Photographer’s Association and served two terms with the Western Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, when he helped administer a Passion Projects grant for freelance visual journalists to carry out projects that might not have been funded by news organizations.