Additional resources, including aircraft, arrived to fight the Jolly Mountain Fire in Upper Kittitas County over the weekend.
The fire started Aug. 11 after a series of lightning strikes in the region. It is burning in a remote, hard-to-reach area northeast of Lake Cle Elum. As of this morning, it was 4,682 acres, with more than 300 personnel assigned to fight it.
Two fixed-wing FireBoss aircraft are now assigned to the fire. They require about 5,000 feet of open water and can scoop up nearly 800 gallons of water in 60-90 seconds.
Helicopters dropped nearly 55,000 gallons of water on the fire on Sunday, with the FireBoss planes dropping another 30,000 gallons, according to the latest summary from the incident management team. The planes will continue working on the fire today.