This expanded narrative adds to and builds on the Twisp River Status Report. It was written by a 25-member interagency team who visited the incident site, interviewed participants, reviewed official documents, and used this information to recreate the August 19, 2015 events to the best of their abilities. Once the first draft of the narrative was created, all personnel involved with the Twisp River Fire were invited to review the document and offer input as to its accuracy. This iterative process continued until all 25 team members were satisfied that the narrative was as accurate as possible. All personnel involved in the incident who took part in the read-back sessions agreed that the narrative accurately represented their stories.

The Twisp River Fire was reported on August 19 at 1223 Pacific Daylight Time. The fire started when tree branches struck a nearby powerline. By 0600 hours on August 20, it was reported to be 7,231 acres and had reached the outskirts of Twisp, Washington. The fire’s final reported acreage on August 26 was 11,922 acres. This narrative describes the events that took place during the initial attack of this incident. The intent of this report is to capture - as accurately as we can - what happened on the Twisp River Fire so that we can learn how to prevent fatality fires in the future.