Washington Wildfires Destroy Hundreds of Buildings, Force Mass Evacuations

AP

Damaged properties of people near Spokane, Washington.

Wildfires burning on the outskirts of Spokane, Washington, entered a third day on Tuesday, destroying at least 700 buildings and forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate, according to Reuters, citing local officials.

The three major fires have become the highest firefighting priority in the United States, including the drought-stricken Pacific Northwest, where dozens of large wildfires have been burning for weeks, significantly worsening air quality across the region.

Since erupting on Saturday, the Spokane-area blazes have scorched more than 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares) on the northern edge of the city, which is home to around 230,000 people and lies near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, close to the Idaho border.

As of Monday, some 64,000 people were under immediate evacuation orders, up from 4,000 a day earlier, according to Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson for the incident command center.

At least 700 structures have gone up in flames, mostly in residential areas, and aerial infrared surveys showed that possibly another 400 buildings, including homes, had been damaged or destroyed, Cossel said. The cause of ‌the blazes ⁠was under investigation.

No injuries or fatalities have been reported so far, Cossel told Reuters, adding, "There's a high probability that will change in the coming days" as flames subside and search teams are able to reach devastated communities still inaccessible due to extreme fire activity.

An unspecified number of people have been reported missing as flames spread out of wooded areas into neighborhoods and commercially developed areas, "turning from a wildfire to an urban conflagration," he said.

Around 1,100 firefighters were battling the Spokane-area wildfires as of Monday, according to officials. They represent only a small share of the more than 29,200 personnel deployed to wildfire operations across the United States, with the largest concentrations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise.

The agency reported that more than 100 new large wildfires broke out across 15 states on Sunday, with the majority occurring in the Pacific Northwest, placing increasing pressure on firefighting resources throughout the region.

The Spokane cluster was one of 15 major fires burning in Washington state alone, with more than 250,000 acres ablaze, according to state Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove.

"This is an extraordinary wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest," he told reporters.

North of the U.S.-Canadian border, flames continued to rage across British Columbia, where record drought conditions have led to what officials over the ⁠weekend called "explosive" fire behavior.

Fire managers in Spokane hoped their crews could make greater headway during a narrow window of cooler, less windy weather expected to prevail on Monday and Tuesday, before extremely high temperatures, low humidity and gusty conditions are forecast to return at midweek, Cossel said.

The National Interagency Fire Center has recorded 44,722 wildfires across the United States so far this year—the highest number for this point in the year in at least a decade. Nearly 5.2 million acres have been burned, marking the largest area consumed by wildfires between January and early August since 2022.

Scientists say the worsening wildfire activity seen across North America, Europe and other parts of the world in recent years has been driven largely by human-induced climate change, which has contributed to prolonged droughts, extreme heat and increasingly severe fire conditions.



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