With temperatures near freezing and wind chills in the mid-20s, a brush fire broke out Tuesday night, threatening several homes near Rock Island.
The temperature was unusual for a brush fire — and so was the date. A start date of Oct. 28 makes the Webb Place Fire one of the latest in the past decade, according to state Department of Natural Resources data.
Only one other fire in Chelan or Douglas counties, bigger than 1 acre, started later in the year: The Monitor Fire on Nov. 1, 2017, according to the DNR database. That fire burned 1,100 acres near Highway 2/97. DNR’s database only includes blazes that happened on DNR-protected land, but it’s still a good indicator of fire seasonality, said Douglas County Fire Marshal Kurt Blanchard.