Overview
- A fast-moving blaze called the Old Trails Fire ignited on Saturday and within hours crossed the Spokane River, pushed into neighborhoods and prompted Level 3 “leave now” evacuation orders for roughly 5,000 homes.
- State and federal leaders mobilized rapidly, with the governor activating the Washington National Guard, calling in multi-state and international crews, and opening large shelters for displaced residents.
- As of the latest tallies, three Spokane-area fires have scorched several thousand acres with 0% containment and preliminary damage assessments show about 600 structures destroyed.
- Critical infrastructure was forced to evacuate or shut down, utilities used public-safety power shutoffs affecting tens of thousands of customers, and a VA hospital plus water and waste facilities were moved to safer locations.
- The seasonwide context is extreme: Washington has recorded more than 1,000 fires and roughly 400,000–450,000 acres burned this year, drought and high winds are constraining suppression, and investigators are still probing the cause of the Old Trails Fire.