The Spring Coulee Fire was estimated to be the size of a basketball court when it was first reported at 3:59 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2019.
Seven minutes later it was estimated to be the size of a football field. Three minutes after that evacuations were issued, flames were around 10 feet high and the fire had burned 5 to 10 acres.
Seventeen minutes later, at 4:26 p.m., a call came over the radio that a firefighter was “down at the head of the fire.”
The fire’s rapid growth was one of several factors that contributed to the serious injury and subsequent death of Okanogan County Fire District 3 Assistant Chief Christian Johnson, according to a report conducted by state firefighting agencies.
The report, called a facilitated learning analysis, was conducted to determine what lessons could be learned from the incident.