More than a dozen wildfires burning across Washington prompted a statewide emergency declaration, evacuations in Spokane and the loss of electricity for tens of thousands of residents as crews prepared for dangerous heat and wind.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Wildfires burning across more than 250,000 acres of Washington state forced widespread evacuations Saturday, threatened thousands of buildings and left about 60,000 people without electricity in the Spokane area, according to state and local officials.
Approximately 4,000 firefighters and other personnel were battling more than a dozen fires across the state, Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove said during a virtual news conference Saturday evening.
Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency and imposed a burn ban Saturday morning as officials warned that high temperatures and strong winds expected throughout the weekend could intensify the fires and complicate containment efforts.
“Our state is facing a very serious situation with multiple fires,” Ferguson said.
Officials had received no reports of fire-related deaths or injuries as of Saturday evening, although the rapidly changing conditions had led to evacuation orders, facility closures and extensive power disruptions.
Spokane, an eastern Washington city of approximately 230,000 residents, was confronting the Old Trails Fire, which had spread across about 3,000 acres and was threatening an estimated 4,000 structures, Washington State Forester George Geissler said.
Mayor Lisa Brown said several major facilities had been evacuated as the fire advanced, including water reclamation operations, a waste-to-energy plant and the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.
About 200 Spokane homes had been evacuated as of 3:30 p.m., but Brown said the number was expected to rise because the evacuation zones covered large portions of the city.
“These are large areas of the city, so I assume it’s going to be more than that,” Brown said.
Avista, the utility serving eastern Washington, reported that approximately 60,000 customers had lost power, according to Stacey McClain of the Washington State Emergency Management Division.
The Old Trails Fire was among five incidents classified as “major complex fires” burning throughout Washington, Geissler said. The largest was the Kaiser Canyon Fire in northeastern Washington, which had grown to approximately 134,000 acres.
Upthegrove said about 450,000 acres had burned across Washington since the beginning of the summer, underscoring the scale and intensity of the current fire season.
“This is not normal. … Throughout the state of Washington we’re seeing fires raging,” Upthegrove said.
State officials said personnel from more than a dozen other states had joined Washington crews in fighting the fires. The Washington National Guard was also assisting with the emergency response.
Maj. Gen. Gent Welsh, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard, warned that the full extent of the destruction might not become clear until daylight returned.
“It’s a tragedy what we’re seeing over there,” Welsh said. “When the sun sets and the sun rises in the morning, I think we’re going to be in shock to see some of the scenes that emerged out there.”
The Washington fires followed another difficult wildfire period elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes in southern British Columbia the previous month ignited a series of fires and triggered evacuation orders across portions of the Canadian province.
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