SPOKANE, Wash. — Strong winds pushed a rapidly spreading wildfire into a residential neighborhood in eastern Washington on Tuesday, forcing approximately 1,500 people to flee their homes and leaving some houses engulfed in flames, fire officials announced Wednesday.
The exact number of homes destroyed in the Spokane area had not yet been confirmed. Fire officials were still working Wednesday to assess the full scope of the damage, according to Matthew Vinci, fire chief for Spokane County Fire District 9, who confirmed Tuesday that some structures had been consumed by the flames.
As of Wednesday, the evacuation order covering those 1,500 residents remained active, said Chandra Fox, deputy director for Spokane County Emergency Management.
“Our concern is for increased winds Wednesday afternoon,” Fox said.
The fire broke out shortly after noon on Tuesday and rapidly climbed a hillside before shifting winds redirected the flames toward a nearby neighborhood, according to fire district spokesman Robert Gray.
Firefighting crews from both Washington state and Idaho worked to battle the blaze on the ground and from the air, but the fire quickly expanded to 225 acres — roughly a third of a square mile. By Wednesday morning, it was reported at just 10% containment, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Nationally, more than 32,000 wildfires have scorched over 3,900 square miles across the United States so far this year, according to the fire center, which coordinates large-scale firefighting resources. That figure is considerably higher than the 10-year average of nearly 24,000 fires burning around 2,200 square miles by early June — even as fire activity has been relatively subdued in recent weeks.
Looking ahead, weather and fuel models tracked by the National Interagency Fire Center indicate elevated wildfire danger in several parts of the country in the coming weeks. Areas flagged as having critical conditions include parts of California, the Southwest, the Great Basin, and the Rocky Mountain region.
