'Very labor intensive': Firefighters face challenging terrain to battle Tunnel 5 fire

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Firefighters are being challenged by winds and steep terrain while they try to get the Tunnel 5 fire in Skamania County under control.

The fire remains under 600 acres as of Thursday afternoon, but 10 homes have burned and nearly 1,000 homes are under some level of evacuation order.

Bob Shindelar, the incident commander for the fire, says the terrain is the top challenge. Usually, firefighters can bulldoze containment lines -- but instead, they're scaling the 1,200-foot wall of the Columbia River Gorge to try and contain the fire and protect people's homes.

"We're continuing to do mop up and hold our control lines," he said. "The west side has been a great challenge for us because of the steepness of the terrain and amount of vegetation that's there."

More than 450 firefighters are climbing the north wall of the gorge to attempt to build the containment lines.

"This fire is very labor intensive, it's being done all by hand," Shindelar said.

Washington's new plane with an infrared camera is also helping in the fight, scanning the terrain and feeding back to fire crews on the ground, showing them where to attack.

"It shows where the hot spots are at, where those embers are being cast and when they start spot fires. We're able to quickly identify them and get resources on those spot fires as soon as possible," Shindelar

"It is very clear this fire season is going to be one of our toughest," added said Hillary Franz, the Washington commissioner of public lands.

Franz says fires this early on the western side of the state are troubling, since this area isn't typically a concern until August.

Washington has expanded its state-owned aircraft fleet and secured more than 30 exclusive-use air contracts, preventing the state from battling with others for the use of aircraft once fire season heats up.

"When you have this kind of conditions when every part of our landscape is hot and dry when its susceptible to fire, initial attack is everything," Franz said.

For the Tunnel 5 fire, Shindelar believes that if there aren't any major problems, crews will have a handle on the fire by next week.