Whitney Fire consumes 123,000 acres near Davenport

Fire 20 percent contained

A fast moving fire consumed over 123,000 acres in Lincoln County this week as high winds on Monday made the fire hard for crews to contain. The fire, also being referred to as the Hawk Creek fire, is currently burning in the areas of Hawk Creek Road, Cottonwood Creek, Gunning, South Telford, Whitaker Lake and Seven Springs Dairy. Isabel Hoygaard of the Type 3 Incident team said the fire has burnt at least four homes and numerous outbuildings.

“We saw exponential growth of the fire on Monday and extreme fire behavior,” Hoygaard said. “Due to the wind we couldn’t bring in air support and the dozer and handline efforts didn’t work.”

School was closed in Davenport on Tuesday due to the fires and numerous residents in the area are out of power. Officials say the cause of the fire was a downed powerline.