OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — As a thick cloud of smoke settled in valleys surrounding Hurricane Ridge Monday afternoon, the repetitive clapping of a helicopter rotor broke an eerie silence.
By nightfall, the three-week old, lightning sparked fire had spread to 160 acres.
And a second small fire sparked by the first began just outside the larger blaze’s western boundary.
Fire crews continued Monday to battle the Griff fire by dropping hundreds of gallons of water by helicopter from a portable reservoir near the Hurricane Ridge visitor center.
——————
