Washington state fires destroy hundreds of buildings and force Spokane-area residents to evacuate

The fires in and around Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, had burned about 12.5 square miles by Monday and filled the sky with smoke and haze. Light winds and lower temperatures arrived to help firefighters, but at least 600 buildings had been destroyed and some 67,000 people were under evacuation orders.

In one Spokane neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and housed were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties.

Among those who returned were Miriam and Daniel Sim, both 76. Miriam held her hand over her mouth as she surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005.

“It’s like a war zone,” Miriam said. “There’s nothing to save.”

“At our age, do we want to rebuild?” her husband asked.

Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said the county initially received nearly 300 reports of missing people, but by Monday they had cleared all but 14.

Those outstanding reports more likely represented people who had not been in contact since evacuating than people who were truly missing or in danger, authorities said.

The Spokane-area wildfires were completely uncontained, said Courtney James, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

They were among dozens across the Western U.S. stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. At least 390 square miles has burned across Washington.

Authorities beseeched people not to fly drones near the burned areas, saying it could force them to delay aerial firefighting operations.

Angela and Wayde Deatherage, both 49, evacuated shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, grabbing a few bins of family photos and heirloom rings but not much else. Roughly 30 minutes later, their security camera was sending fire notifications to Angela’s phone.

Wayde took some back roads and returned by early evening. He stopped at the end of the street and called his wife: “Our house is done.”

But Wayde figured other houses might survive. He turned on a hose at a home that hadn’t burned yet and propped it so it sprayed the house as flames approached. It worked.

They both returned to the neighborhood Sunday.

“It’s just ash,” Angela said of the home where they had lived for nearly 22 years. ”It’s like our house sunk down in the basement. … There’s just so much loss for so many people.”

Friends and relatives of fire victims posted online appeals for money, clothes and basic necessities. Kory and MacKensie Aspaas were away with their children when the disaster hit.

“They are coming back from being out of town to a life that’s been completely wiped out,” friend Kali Butler said.

Officials said Sunday that the evacuees in Spokane included patients at its U.S. Veterans Affairs hospital. Investigators had yet to determine how the blazes started.

Spokane was hardly the only place struggling to contain fires.

Crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for a 10th day to fight a fire that has burned nearly 525 square miles of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

The weather in the area was expected to remain sunny and dry well into the week, with temperatures rising to more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday. Officials say the fire was caused by lightning.

In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend and was nearly 57 square miles by Monday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement.

Heavy winds helped flames jump containment lines.

The fire was moving north toward Fillmore, a town of about 2,600 people and the seat of Millard County. Mandatory evacuations were ordered Sunday evening for the southern portion of Fillmore.

The National Weather Service issued warnings about the air quality across the northwest. It issued red flag fire warnings for parts of Utah and Montana and western Nebraska, and extreme heat warnings for the southern parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and northern Montana.

In Spokane, about 400 people were staying at city’s main convention center, which was turned into a shelter, officials said.

Spokane Public Schools opened a free emergency drop-in camp for children on Monday. Trials at the county court were pushed to Aug. 10.

Several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas northwest of Spokane.

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Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; Martha Bellisle in Seattle; and Ed White in Detroit contributed.

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