One of the fire incident command centers is located at the Methow Valley Elementary School near Winthrop, where hundreds of tents are pitched, creating a small city.

One of the active blazes in the Methow Valley, when this photo was taken on Aug. 6.

The many hundreds of firefighters have been welcomed warmly in Okanogan County.

The air is thick with smoke in the Columbia River basin, north from Wenatchee to the Canadian border. This was taken near the fire damaged town of Pateros on Highway 97.

I just completed a trip through some of the most impacted areas of central Washington, where the largest fires ever in the state have left a path of devastation and continued disruption. Okanogan County, a beautiful mountainous and a popular recreation area, was among the hardest hit. One fire alone, the Carlton Complex fire, burned more than 300,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes. Charred remains of burned buildings can be seen from the roadside, not to mention hills turned black and brown. Thankfully, no one was directly killed. More than 25 helicopters remain deployed in the valley, and several thousand regional firefights continue to fight blazes in the county and now other areas of the state.

I will publish pictures of actual fire damage tomorrow, in Okanogan County and also in the town of Pateros, which lost more than a dozen homes to a fast-moving blaze in mid-July. I have never seen type of smoke cover we have now statewide as I saw the past few days throughout the entire state. (Click on each photo to see a large picture on a separate picture page.)