Sinlahekin fire grows to 165,000 acres, ranks among Washington's largest wildfires on record

The Sinlahekin fire burning through the timber and sagebrush hills of north-central Washington has grown to 165,590 acres and is now 49 percent contained, according to a Friday morning update posted to the federal government's InciWeb incident-tracking system. Ignited by lightning more than a month ago in a remote valley west of Tonasket, the fire has become one of the ten largest in Washington state history and remains the costliest active wildfire in the state.

Crews expanded evacuation orders again overnight for the upper portion of the burn area, and Level 3 "go now" notices remain in effect for a stretch of Okanogan County running from west of the Okanogan River north toward the town of Oroville, near the Canadian border. Some zones on the fire's northern and eastern flanks have been downgraded to Level 2 "be set" status as containment lines have held, but the perimeter still stretches across roughly 260 square miles of rangeland, timber and canyon country in the state's far northeast corner. Smoke from the burn has repeatedly settled over the Columbia Basin and other parts of central Washington in recent weeks, at times pushing air quality into unhealthy ranges well outside the immediate fire zone.

The numbers

As of Friday, 1,595 firefighting personnel remained assigned to the incident, working under an interagency command that was preparing to hand off Saturday from a California-based team to a Southwest regional team, according to the InciWeb report. The National Interagency Fire Center's daily situation report lists the fire as burning in short grass, brush and timber, with extreme behavior — uphill runs, torching and spotting — recorded on its active flanks as recently as this week. An initial "windshield survey" by the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office in mid-August counted 33 structures affected by the fire, a tally that includes homes, barns and outbuildings and that the Okanogan County Assessor's Office has since been working to verify and classify. No deaths or injuries have been attributed to the fire.

How it grew into a record blaze

The fire started July 26 from a lightning strike about 12 miles west of Tonasket and initially burned slowly through rugged terrain. It exploded over the following two weeks, tripling in size during a single wind-driven weekend in early August and surpassing 100,000 acres within ten days of ignition. By mid-August it had become the largest wildfire of Washington's 2026 season and entered the state's top ten largest fires on record, according to state fire officials. The rapid growth came amid what Governor Bob Ferguson called "record-setting drought and high winds" statewide, conditions that prompted him to declare a statewide state of emergency and impose a burn ban on outdoor and agricultural fires running through September 30, according to a formal declaration issued August 1 by the governor's office. Four fires drove that declaration: Sinlahekin and the Kaiser Canyon fire, both in Okanogan County, the Bradeen Hill fire in Stevens County, and the Little Giant fire in Chelan County's Entiat Valley.

Who is affected

The fire's growth in early August knocked out electrical service across a stretch of Okanogan County running from Tonasket to the Canadian border, and evacuation notices at one point extended north across the border into British Columbia near Osoyoos before being downgraded. Closer to the fire, the Loomis-Oroville corridor and the community of Loomis were placed under Level 3 evacuation orders for much of August, and the Okanogan County government's active-incidents page continues to list Chopaka Road as closed and directs residents with fire-damaged property to county emergency management for assessment. Recreational access to the Loomis State Forest and the area between Conconully and Loomis remains suspended. At an August 11 Tonasket City Council meeting, a Cal Fire representative briefing the council described the surrounding landscape in stark terms.

"The fuels here are in critical condition," the Cal Fire representative told the council, warning that even a minor ignition source could rapidly escalate into a new fire.

Mayor Alisa Weddle credited Okanogan County Sheriff Jodie Barcus for coordinating closely with emergency managers and the incident command post through the worst of the fire's spread. The Colville Confederated Tribes, whose lands lie near the fire's perimeter, are among three tribal nations covered by a subsequent federal emergency declaration.

The response and its cost

President Trump's administration approved Ferguson's request for a federal emergency declaration on August 4, unlocking Federal Emergency Management Agency support for evacuation costs, emergency shelter, food and water assistance, and search-and-rescue operations across six counties — Chelan, Ferry, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens and Yakima — and three tribal nations, though a request for debris-removal funding was not granted, according to the governor's office announcement of the declaration.

"I appreciate the federal government moving quickly and granting our request for this emergency declaration," Ferguson said. "We are laser-focused on getting assistance to those Washingtonians who have lost so much."

The fire has cost an estimated $33 million to fight as of mid-August, making it the most expensive of roughly 20 wildfires that federal, state and local agencies have spent a combined $207 million battling since July 1, a pace that put the state on track to exceed the $285.9 million it spent fighting fires in the previous fiscal year. Statewide, more than 791,000 acres had burned by mid-August, the third-most in Washington history for a fire season still weeks from its typical end, according to state fire spending figures reported by the Spokesman-Review. A Washington Department of Natural Resources spokesperson said simply that the state is "seeing more large and costly fires on the landscape." The department's wildfire portal lists two other major Okanogan-area fires, the Kaiser Canyon and Little Giant blazes, both now largely contained after burning through more than 130,000 acres apiece and, in the case of Little Giant, destroying 35 structures in Chelan County's Entiat Valley.

• Sinlahekin fire, Okanogan County: 165,590 acres, 49% contained, roughly $33 million spent as of mid-August
• Kaiser Canyon fire, Okanogan County: about 138,000 acres, roughly $42.1 million spent
• Little Giant fire, Chelan County: about 137,000 acres, 35 structures destroyed, roughly $37.8 million spent
• Bradeen Hill fire, Stevens County: 4,417 acres, 96% contained

What happens next

Fire managers said this week that crews are shifting from direct attack on the fire's edges to patrol and mop-up work around structures in areas where containment lines have held, while a change-of-command was set to transfer oversight from a California incident management team to a Southwest regional team on Saturday. Firefighters continue to report spot fires and slopovers along the fire's active northwest flank, near Toats Coulee, and officials have warned residents to expect continued fire traffic even where roads have reopened. Cross-state cooperation under the Pacific Northwest Wildland Fire Compact, which pools crews and equipment from California, Oregon and Washington, remains active as agencies weigh how to redistribute resources once containment lines hold through the weekend.

With the statewide burn ban in place through the end of September and no significant precipitation in the near-term forecast for north-central Washington, state officials say full containment remains weeks away, and the Okanogan County Assessor's Office's damage survey — needed before displaced residents can access federal individual-assistance programs — is still ongoing. Governor Ferguson's office has said it is also preparing to request a federal Major Disaster Declaration, which would unlock additional individual assistance for residents rebuilding and public funding for infrastructure repair beyond what the emergency declaration already covers.