BICKLETON: A fast-growing wildfire forced residents to evacuate a rural stretch of southern Washington state’s Klicki­tat County on Saturday after it burned over 30,000 acres in less than 24 hours.

The Newell Road Wildfire has already destroyed several structures in the area and is threatening homes, farms, crops and livestock, solar and wind farms and a natural gas pipeline, county emergency officials said.

The fire was also moving toward the Yakama Indian Reservation, Allen Lebovitz, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Natural Resources, said in an interview.

Lebovitz said, “We are under a red flag warning. That’s a firefighter’s worst nightmare because the humidity is dropping precipitously’’.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2023