Thousands under evacuation orders and some homes burn as wildfires race through Washington state

Fast-moving wildfires raced through Washington state on Friday, burning some homes and prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people in small rural communities.

One of the largest blazes, the so-called Gray Fire near Spokane in eastern Washington, started on the west side of Medical Lake, about 15 miles west of Spokane, at about 12:30 p.m. Friday, state DNR spokesperson Isabelle Hoygaard said Saturday.

It grew to 14.8 square miles by Saturday morning, with zero containment. The burned structures were a mixture of homes and outbuildings.

Level 3, or “Go Now,” evacuations were issued for Medical Lake, a community of about 4,800 people and some homes and other buildings had burned, authorities said, although it wasn’t clear how many.

The blaze burned through the south side of the town and then jumped Interstate 90 Friday night, forcing its closure. The major east-west thoroughfare remained closed in both directions Saturday morning.

“The fire is burning on both sides of the highway,” the Washington state Department of Transportation said on its webpage.

There was one confirmed fatality associated with the fire, Hoygaard said.

National Guard troops were called in to help evacuate patients and staff from Eastern State Hospital, a 367-bed psychiatric facility in Medical Lake.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said deputies were “running from house to house” urging people to leave their homes, NBC News reported.

“We’ve had to rescue people by boat. We’ve had to rescue people by helicopter,” Nowels said. “If you’re in an evacuation area, leave. We have some folks who refused to leave. Fire then overtakes where they’re at and they need to be rescued.”

“My thoughts are with the Medical Lake, WA, residents who have been ordered to evacuate as the Gray Fire grows,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on X, formally known as Twitter. “I’m also praying for the safety of the first responders working to contain the fire. May you all remain safe and out of harm’s way.”

Evacuation orders also were issued for nearby Four Lakes, which has about 500 residents. A Level 2 evacuation alert, urging people to “Get Set” to evacuate, was issued Friday night for the city of Cheney, which has more than 13,000 residents. The alert included staff and students at Eastern Washington University, located in Cheney.

A second Spokane County blaze dubbed the Oregon Road Fire also prompted evacuations, the Department of Natural Resources said.

That fire broke out near Elk at around 4 p.m. and in only a few hours grew to some 3 square miles.

The region was scorched by triple-digit temperatures last week, leaving grasslands and wheat fields ready to burn, said Joe Smillie, spokesperson for the DNR.

“We haven’t had any real rain all summer, basically,” he said, and then a cooler weather front moved in Thursday, bringing with it gusty winds.

The National Weather Service had warned of “critical fire conditions,” citing dry conditions and the potential for gusty winds that could cause new or existing fires to spread rapidly.

Authorities were calling in more aircraft and firefighters to battle the Gray Fire, which closed down Interstate 90.

South of Spokane, the Winona Fire in Whitman County had burned at least 7.8 square miles of grass and brush and prompted evacuations orders for Winona, a tiny hamlet of about 50 residents.

“Cropland, range land, primary structure and secondary structures are threatened,” the DNR said on social media.

The fires were among 36 blazes that erupted around the state in the past two days, although most were small and quickly contained, Smillie said.

There wasn’t any immediate word on what sparked the blazes.

This story was originally published August 19, 2023 at 7:23 PM.