Washington wildfires force 64,000 evacuations near Spokane

Wildfires near Spokane, Washington, have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. The fires have been burning for a third day around the state’s second-largest city, officials said.

The cluster of three blazes ranked as the top firefighting priority in the U.S. as a whole, including the drought-parched Pacific Northwest, where dozens of major wildfires have burned for weeks. 

The Spokane-area fires have blackened more than 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares) since erupting on Saturday on the northern fringe of the city, home to about 230,000 residents west of the Rocky Mountain foothills near the Idaho border.

Enormous palls of smoke billowed into the sky north of the city, as flames devoured forest land 6 miles (10 km) from Spokane's downtown. 

'Go now'

Kami Fehlig, 58, was one of hundreds of area residents who fled for their lives before wind-driven flames engulfed their homes over the weekend.

Fehlig searched through the charred remains of her home on Monday, recalling how she and her husband watched in shock as flames crossed the Spokane River and moved toward their neighborhood.

"About 30 minutes before it jumped the river, my husband and I were seeing how bad it was, and we told the kids, 'We don't want to scare you, but we think you should start preparing to grab some things.'"

As of Monday, some 64,000 people were under immediate evacuation orders, up from 4,000 a day earlier, according to Benjamin Cossel, a spokesperson for the incident command center. 

The cause of the blazes was under investigation.

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Bracing for fatalities

No injuries or fatalities have been reported so far, according to incident spokesperson Benjamin Cossel. He warned the situation could change in the coming days as firefighters reach areas affected by the flames and search operations begin.

Around 1,100 firefighters were battling the Spokane-area blazes on Monday, officials said. Nationwide, more than 29,200 personnel were deployed to fight wildfires, with many concentrated in Oregon, Washington state and Idaho.

The Spokane cluster was one of 15 major fires burning in Washington state alone, with more than 250,000 acres ablaze, according to state Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove.

"This is an extraordinary wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest," he told reporters.

North of the U.S.-Canadian border, flames continued to rage across British Columbia, where record drought conditions have led to what officials over the weekend called "explosive" fire behavior. 

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Wildfires Spokane Washington Pacific Northwest Evacuations Extreme weather