Whitney Fire consumes over 100,000 acres near Davenport

WILBUR — A fast-moving fire consumed over 70,000 acres in Lincoln County yesterday as high winds 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 yesterday 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. The cause of the Whitney fire is undetermined.

Hoygaard said there are also smaller fires near Wilbur and Sprague but additional details were not available at press time.