Crews have made progress on the Spokane Complex fires, but the worst might still be ahead over the next several days, with high winds in the forecast.
Containment numbers are slowly climbing, with the Old Trails Fire at 25%, Autumn Lane at 20%, and Fairview at 15%, but 35-mph winds are forecast, with humidity continuing to drop.
Firefighters and officials are worried about a major flare-up that could erase days of hard-earned progress.
The Spokane Complex Fire Evacuation Zone Is Massive
This situation is not over, and it is not even close. Lots of area firefighters are resting today to get ready for the fight ahead.
The Level 3 Go Now evacuation zone in Spokane is not a small perimeter around a single neighborhood. The zone stretches about 15 miles long and up to 10 miles wide at its thickest point, running from Dover and the North Spokane Corridor all the way south to Sullivan Road.
Most sections of the Level 3 Go Now zones through that 15-mile stretch run between 2 and 4 miles wide.
Tens of thousands of Spokane residents remain under active evacuation orders with no clear timeline for when they will be allowed to return. Mayor Lisa Brown said at a press conference that it could be a week or could be weeks before most evacuees can go home.
Around 970 structures have been confirmed destroyed, with hundreds more still being surveyed and additional properties still in active danger zones. The full scope of the damage is not yet known.
The High Wind Forecast Is the Real Concern
Here is what has fire crews on edge. Forecasted wind gusts of 20 mph returning to the Spokane area combined with dropping humidity create the exact conditions that caused this disaster to explode in the first place.
Wind is what pushed the Old Trails Fire across the Spokane River and into residential neighborhoods on August 1. A repeat of those wind conditions with active fire still burning at low containment percentages is a worst-case scenario that officials are actively preparing for.
An Alleged Arsonist Is Already in Court
Adding a deeply troubling dimension to this story, a suspect believed to have deliberately started the Old Trails Fire was charged with first-degree arson and appeared in court Thursday for arraignment.
If that charge holds, the destruction of nearly 1,000 structures and the displacement of tens of thousands of Spokane residents was not a natural disaster.
It was a crime.
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