This is Northwest Public Broadcasting's Weekly News Now.

I'm Tracci Dial.

Thanks so much for joining us.

A small town in central Washington, only accessible by boat, by foot or by floatplane is under fire.

Stehekin sits just feet from the state's largest active wildfire: The Pioneer Fire.

Stehekin is a tiny town.

It's charming, and it's about a two hour ferry trip from Chelan.

The Pioneer Fire has been burning north of Lake Chelan since June.

Evacuation orders are in effect and crews have been coming in by the hundreds to protect the region and stop the fire.

It's so far burned close to 40,000 acres.

“Were keeping the fire out of their community which ourselves and the teams before us have been very successful with and we will continue to be successful with that.” That's Stephen Fillmore with the Fire Incident Management team.

To take a closer look at some incredible pictures from Stehekin and the journey there.

Go to our website, that's NWPB.org.

Now we meet Finn.

Finn works with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

He's a four-year-old pup, and you can think of him as a sort of bomb or drug dog, but he's actually sniffing out tiny invasive mussels.

We're told zebra and quagga mussels smell a little bit like old gym socks.

Nick Knauss, Finn's handler, says it's not about finding the smell, per se.

For Finn, it's about how quickly he could sniff those mussels out.

“Historically, there's no success story of them being eradicated from a water body once they've taken hold.

So anything we can do to prevent that is is paramount.” At this point the Columbia River Basin is the only major river system in the U.S. without an invasive mussel infestation.

The mussels sniffing dogs require a lot of special training.

Fish and wildlife is hoping to get another specialized dog, just like Finn.

Hopefully, they say, near the Tri-Cities, where a lot of cross-state travelers pass through.

You can hear Finn on the job and check out more of his work on our website and see a cool little video about him on social media.

A new immersive art gallery in Spokane uses digital technology to bring you into the arts.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience has been a pop-up art exhibit all over the region, and now it's close to home.

“It looked like you're actually going through the paintings.

My favorite part was probably the part where you're walking through a village or in the one with all the, like, wheat and hay.

” That was Nayeli Perez, there with friends and family.

She's talking about a virtual reality piece of the exhibit and the painting: Siesta.

What this work shows about the famous artists mental health and even a sneak peek of what NASA later found mimicking Van Gogh's art can be found in our full story online.

You can also find NWPB on Instagram and on Facebook and on YouTube.

I'm Tracci Dial with your NWPB Weekly News Now.

Thanks for joining us.