Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Wind-driven wildfires around Spokane, Washington have destroyed more than 600 homes and forced roughly 60,000 people to evacuate under go-now orders.
Wind-driven wildfires swept through neighborhoods in and around Spokane, Washington over the weekend, destroying hundreds of homes inside the city and forcing tens of thousands of residents out under Level 3 go-now evacuation orders. As of August 2, officials counted at least 640 structures destroyed and roughly 60,000 people evacuated across three fires, and both numbers are expected to climb as crews reach burned neighborhoods.
The worst damage came from the Old Trails fire and two other fast-moving fires in Spokane County, which together burned about 8,000 acres in populated areas. To the west, the Little Giant fire near Chelan grew past 38,000 acres. Winds of 35 to 45 miles per hour drove embers ahead of the flames and carried fire from house to house. That house-to-house spread is how a wildfire does its worst damage inside a city.
More than 900 firefighters are working the Spokane-area fires, with crews arriving from as far as California, Australia, and New Zealand. Smoke pushed east across Washington, Idaho, and Montana and dropped air quality into the unhealthy range for millions of people well outside the burn zone.
Many of the homes that burned sat in ordinary neighborhoods rather than deep in the forest, which is the reality of the wildland-urban interface. For those households, the danger arrives on the wind long before the flame front does. Hardening a roof, clearing gutters, and moving anything that burns away from the walls is what protecting your property against wildfires is really about. That work belongs in the calm months, not the red-flag ones.
When an evacuation order comes, it can come with minutes to spare. Knowing when to evacuate a wildfire and leaving early keeps you off gridlocked roads. A packed bug out bag staged by the door means the decision to go is not the moment you start gathering documents, medications, and a change of clothes.
The Spokane fires are still active and the structure count is still rising as of this writing. It is worth checking your own evacuation routes and your home's defenses before the next red-flag day, not during it.
