WENATCHEE, Wash. — An 18-year-old from Kent has been arrested for allegedly starting the deadly Chelan Hills Fire in Douglas County.
The fire started as a brush fire on US 97 just after midnight on July 4.
The following day, deputies were following up on a missing person report of someone who was in the affected fire area. They found a vehicle that had slid off the roadway that had been consumed by the fire with someone dead inside.
The person inside the vehicle was later identified as 69-year-old Robert Lister of Orondo.
Douglas County Sheriff Tyler Caille told KIRO 7 on July 8 that it appears Lister was trying to escape the fires.
As of Sept. 2, the fire burned nearly 10,000 acres and forced evacuations of nearby residents.
“The Chelan Hills Fire resulted in significant loss, widespread disruption, and long-term impacts to residents throughout the Chelan Hills and McNeil Canyon areas,” the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a press release.
Caille gave KIRO 7 a tour of the severe fire damage along the McNeil Canyon area. We saw homes burnt down to their foundations, cars torched, and power poles that looked like campfire logs.
“There was just so much smoke, dust, and erratic fire behavior, they couldn’t make an attack on the fire,” Caille said.
He tells us two firefighting crews almost didn’t make it out alive because the fire was burning so hot.
Caille says the first crew’s truck tires popped because of the heat, telling us their quick thinking is what got them out.
“It became so hot their tires started to pop and rather than drive down the road with popped tires, they backed the truck in and they ran,” Caille said.
He says a second crew was forced to blindly drive through the smoke and fire after the heat from the flames blew out their windows.
On Sept. 2, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office developed probable cause to arrest who they say is the primary suspect responsible for igniting the Chelan Hills Fire.
The sheriff’s office has identified him as Michael Yakimov, of Kent.
He was arrested without incident and was booked into the Chelan County Regional Justice Center for first-degree manslaughter and first-degree arson, first-degree malicious mischief and six counts of third-degree assault.
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