Reviewing the Texas Lake fire

Fran Martin, county emergency management director, goes over a map of the Texas Lake fire with county commissioners Monday morning.

Sparked by a bolt of lightning Aug. 21, the fire burned just over 2,500 acres of range land in the Texas Lake area between Winona and Ewan.

Local fire crews responded in the early morning hours, but Friday afternoon the fire blew up again and crews from five different rural districts responded.

A state mobilization was declared Friday at about 7 p.m.

and 14 trucks responded from Cowlitz, Stevens and Spokane County.

The state team staged at St. John High School.

Martin said the mobilization was called to relieve local volunteers, many of whom had been working on harvest crews in the area.

Because of the mobilization, the state will pick up nearly all the cost of fighting the blaze.

Martin said the county is on the hook for $163 spent on water and Gatorade before the mobilization was called in.