Spokane area fires inch ahead as evacuations and damage mount

The Old Trails and Autumn Lane fires were each 13% contained Wednesday, while the Fairview fire was 5% contained as the Spokane Area Fires pushed across Spokane and Stevens counties. Together, the three blazes had burned more than 10,000 acres and destroyed or damaged more than 600 structures, with the heaviest losses in the Old Trails Fire. Spokane County commissioners declared a state of emergency as evacuations widened.

The Spokane County Incident Management Team includes the Old Trails Fire, Fairview Fire and Autumn Lane Fire. Spokane County health officials put the number of people evacuated or forced to evacuate at roughly 60,000 to 65,000 at the height of the fires, and urged residents to monitor evacuation maps and smoke resources as smoke triggered air-quality alerts across the county. Officials also restricted airspace over the fires to protect firefighting aircraft and other suppression operations.

Firefighters were working around the clock on the blaze, and exhausted wildland firefighters found refuge at JK Boots, a family-owned bootmaking facility in Spokane, while battling the Spokane Complex Fire.

National preparedness level 5 was in effect as of July 18 at the National Interagency Fire Center, its highest readiness level, and its July 31 situation report listed 87 uncontained large fires and 28 incident management teams committed nationwide. One 15-member incident management team and 59 fireline management personnel from Australia and New Zealand were already assigned to support large fires in the Northwest Area.