Wildfires force thousands to evacuate Spokane as Washington declares emergency

Fire erupts and spreads rapidly

The Old Trails Fire ignited just before noon on Saturday near Old Trails Road and West Euclid Road, west of Spokane and north of Airway Heights, burning brush and grass. Propelled by wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour and high temperatures, it quickly spread north and east toward residential neighborhoods. By late afternoon the fire had consumed about 2,500 acres, and by 8:20 p.m. it had grown to 3,509 acres, roughly 5.5 square miles or 14 square kilometres. About 4,000 buildings were reported to be under threat. The blaze jumped the Spokane River, sending a plume of smoke over the region and turning skies orange. Firefighters had achieved zero containment as of Saturday evening, and the cause remained under investigation.

Evacuations and power outages

Officials issued Level 3 evacuation orders, the highest level, for large parts of Spokane County, urging residents to leave immediately. As of 3:30 p.m., about 200 homes had been evacuated, but Mayor Lisa Brown said she expected that number to rise significantly. Major facilities including water reclamation plants, a waste-to-energy plant, and the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital were also evacuated. Cars lined roads as people fled, and videos on social media showed slow-moving traffic beneath billowing smoke. Utility company Avista implemented public safety shutoffs, cutting power to 60,000 customers in eastern Washington.

State of emergency and firefighting response

Governor Bob Ferguson declared a statewide emergency and a temporary ban on outdoor burning through the end of September on Saturday morning, citing drought conditions, unusually high temperatures, and strong winds. About 4,000 personnel, including the National Guard and firefighters from more than a dozen states, were battling more than a dozen fires across Washington. No injuries or fatalities had been reported as of Saturday evening. Dave Upthegrove, the state commissioner of public lands, warned that resources were already strained.

Our firefighters are already stretched thin across the state, and with more heat and wind expected this weekend and for the rest of the summer, any new spark on our tinder dry landscapes can lead to another devastating wildfire.

Broader wildfire crisis in the Northwest

The Old Trails Fire is one of five major complex fires in Washington. The largest, the Kaiser Canyon Fire in the northeastern part of the state, has burned approximately 134,000 acres. Across the border in Oregon, the Rowe Creek complex has scorched more than 300,000 acres. On Saturday, 40 large fires were burning across Oregon and Washington. Washington has seen more than 1,000 fires tear through roughly 425,000 acres this summer, a level of destruction not seen since 2021, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. In Oregon, about 1.8 million acres had been torched as of July. The intense activity followed two separate outbreaks of lightning in July that ignited dozens of fires, particularly in central Oregon.

Weather conditions and outlook

The National Weather Service issued a rare "particularly dangerous situation" red-flag warning for large portions of eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon on Saturday, the first time such language has been used with a red-flag warning in either state. Jon Bonk, a meteorologist with the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, said the alert was meant to signal a worst-case threat.

We want people to heed this warning in its fullest extent.

A heatwave across the western U.S. was forecast to push temperatures to 110–120°F in the southwest and into the 90s in the Pacific Northwest through early next week. The region is in drought after a winter with insufficient snowpack; precipitation fell more as rain than snow, leaving landscapes tinder-dry. Extreme fire conditions were expected to continue through Saturday evening, with high winds and low humidity persisting.