OKANOGAN, Wash. (AP) - The massive cloud of smoke began to lift over Washington wildfires on Sunday. But as air quality improves, the fire's behavior could become more erratic and intense, fire officials said.
"It's like a flue opening in a fireplace," said Suzanne Flory, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service and the Rocky Mountain Incident Management Team. "Smoke serves as a cap on the fire."
The Okanogan Complex of wildfires was measured at 374 square miles Sunday morning, after growing more than 100 miles larger Saturday in what fire officials said was a relatively calm fire day.
Once the smoke lifts, humidity drops, heat rises and fires can flare up.
Flory said they would not know until Sunday night or early Monday how much the fire had grown on Sunday, but as of late afternoon, fire activity had been relatively quiet. Visibility and air quality improved Sunday.
The complex of fires was estimated to be about 10 percent contained as of Sunday morning, fire spokesman Dan Omdal said.
Containment does not mean the fire has stopped burning. It means it has run out of fuel to burn in that area, either because it has hit a man-made fire line, a drop from airplanes of fire retardant, a road or a lake.
Some of the land within the fire lines is still burning, but other sections have burned out.
"We call it a wildfire, but much of the fire has been tamed," Omdal said. "We are making progress."
The good news for Sunday is that less smoke means restrictions on air travel will be lifted and more fire tankers can drop water and chemical retardant, Flory said.
Air quality, which has been dangerously bad, will also improve when the smoke cloud lifts, but firefighters won't be able to take a breather. "We tell firefighters, if you see blue sky, heads up," Flory said.
Meanwhile, local officials have downgraded some evacuation notices, allowing some people to return to their homes. Thousands remain under evacuation notices.
Sarah Miller, a spokeswoman with Okanogan County Emergency Management, said residents have been warned to stay ready to leave at any time and to not drive around looking at the fires.
"People driving around are getting in the way of fire operations," Miller said.
Steve Surgeon, a mechanic and scrap-metal seller who lost everything he owns except for his home on the outskirts of Okanogan, said he was just happy to be alive.
He stayed in place as the fire raced over a ridge and barreled down toward his home, flames lapping just feet from his back porch.
"I'm alive," he said with a sigh Sunday. "I shouldn't be, but I am - and that's what matters."
Heaps of twisted and charred metal litter his land where the fire burned through.