SPOKANE, Wash. — Wildfires burning without containment in eastern Washington have forced evacuations for roughly 5,000 homes and destroyed about 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said Sunday.
The blazes have scorched more than 8.2 square miles, or about 21 square kilometers, around Spokane, Washington’s second-largest city. They are part of a wider outbreak of fires across the western United States that is straining federal, state and local firefighting resources. No deaths have been reported so far in the Spokane-area fires.
Grassland in flames in parts of Idaho and Oregon
Farther south and east, crews continued battling a massive fire for a 10th day across western Idaho and eastern Oregon, using bulldozers and helicopters to slow its spread. The fire has burned nearly 525 square miles, or about 1,360 square kilometers, of grassland in ranching country and is threatening more than 600 homes along with 800 other structures, officials said.
Forecasters expected conditions there to stay sunny and dry well into the week, with temperatures climbing above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 32 degrees Celsius, by Wednesday. Officials said lightning sparked the fire.
The National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, western and central Idaho, and western Montana. Red flag fire warnings were also posted for parts of Utah, Montana and western Nebraska, while extreme heat warnings covered southern Arizona, California and Nevada, as well as northern Montana.
High winds make it hard to fight fires in Spokane area
In Spokane, Sunday’s high temperature was expected to stay below 80 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27 degrees Celsius, but strong winds were a major concern. Gusts of 35 mph to 45 mph, or 56 kph to 72 kph, were forecast later in the day, said Benjamin Cossel, a public information officer with the federal response team from California that was called in Saturday night to help manage the Spokane-area fires.
“We have weather working against us, and we have terrain working against us,” Cossel said.
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Three fires were burning in the Spokane area: the Old Trails Fire, the Fairview Fire and the Meadowview Fire. State officials issued air quality warnings, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency Saturday, and the National Weather Service placed eastern Washington under a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert.
Cossel said that as it gets warmer during the day, cool air that’s now closer to the ground and keeping winds at bay will rise, allowing those winds to move through the area. The Spokane River cuts through the city of about 229,000 people, and there are steep canyons on both sides that channel the wind.
“They push the fire through the canyons, up, up the slopes, and then outside the slopes and around,” he said. “It’s very, very hilly, very, very steep slopes, a lot of canyons that create really turbulent, really challenging sort of wind scenarios.”
Spokane sets up shelter for impacted residents
Authorities in Spokane set up a shelter at the city’s main convention center.
Several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas northwest of Spokane, including one about 80 miles (129 kilometers) from Spokane that has burned about 210 square miles (544 square kilometers). Another fire in eastern Oregon, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the northwest in the Stinkingwater Mountains, has burned about 336 square miles (870 square kilometers).
“The whole northwest is heavily impacted right now,” said Keila Vizcarra, the spokesperson for the federal team from California handling what’s been named the Big Grass Fire in western Idaho and eastern Oregon.
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