By Cary Rosenbaum
The Chronicle

     TONASKET – A brush fire was reported around 7:45 a.m. on Cartwright Road, after lightning struck a pine tree and spread to one-tenth of an acre, officials said Tuesday.
     The District 12 Fire Department sent four trucks and the Department of Natural Resources sent up a crew as well, Fire Chief Mark Vine said.
     “Any fire at all we respond in force,” Vine said. “It’s not that wet yet.
     “It could have gotten a lot worse had we not got there. It was growing and a couple of neighbors got their first because they saw the smoke, so they helped us out.”
     Vine said it took crews about three hours to get the blaze under control.
     “We had to find a way to get the trucks close enough so that we could pump from the trucks,” he said, “because it was off in the brush quite a ways.”
     Crews made it to the scene around 8:15 a.m., and began building a fire line, he said
     “It took a couple hours more to make sure it was wet enough and dug up (to leave it alone),” Vine said.
     Vine added that Department of Natural Resources will be back to check the fire.