Firefighters get a handle on Spokane wildfires as tens of thousands
remain evacuated
[August 06, 2026]
By MANUEL VALDES, MARTHA BELLISLE and GENE JOHNSON
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Firefighters have taken advantage of cooler
weather to begin getting a handle on wildfires that have displaced tens
of thousands of people around Washington state's second-largest city,
but hotter, drier and breezier days lie ahead.
Officials reported Wednesday that firefighters had established
containment lines around the perimeters of all three fires affecting
Spokane and that they were focused on reinforcing those lines.
Temperatures were expected to climb from the 80s the past two days into
the upper 90s (36-37 degrees Celsius), with less humidity, late this
week.
The fires — one of which authorities say was deliberately set by a man
who was arrested and charged with arson — have destroyed about 850
buildings and forced the evacuation of around 67,000 people since they
erupted last weekend. Damage assessment crews have yet to tally exactly
how many houses have been lost or damaged. No deaths have been reported.
The other two fires were also started by people, though not necessarily
deliberately, investigators have said. They remain under investigation.
Those fires, the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, started independently
of the arson-caused Old Trails Fire, they said.
Unclear how long evacuations will last
Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said during a Wednesday news
conference that the evacuation zones will remain in place due to
incoming weather and fire danger.
“We are not going to be downgrading these zones in any large way for
many, many more days to come," he said. “If we let people back in and we
don’t have a high degree of certainty the fire lines will hold, we will
put people in danger.”
Many evacuees remained in a shelter set up in a Spokane convention
center, at hotels or rentals, or at the homes of friends or relatives,
with no idea of how soon they might go back — if they have a house to
return to.
“We figured it would be a day or two, not four or five. It’s not the
best situation,” said Debra Curran, who has been staying at the
convention center since Saturday with her husband, who has ALS, also
known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Their house survived, but her husband
would need to be transported by ambulance, which officials won't do
until the fire risk in their neighborhood drops.
Among those under evacuation orders are patients and staff from the
Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane. When the fire approached
on Saturday, the staff moved 27 patients to local hospitals and
temporary shelters, said Bret Bowers, a spokesperson for the center. The
medical center was not burned in the fire but several staff lost their
homes.
Adam Wilson, a communications officer at the Washington State Auditor's
Office, fled Saturday with his wife and three children, ages 9, 14 and
16. They had moved into their Spokane home a little over a month earlier
and were still unpacking, he said.
Since then, they've stayed at a hotel 90 minutes to the south and with
his father in Idaho. This weekend, they'll move again, to a rental home
in Spokane that their insurance is covering.
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A burned truck sits in a driveway near several destroyed homes in a
residential neighborhood Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, after a wildfire hit
the northern part of Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Their house is fine, Wilson said, despite flames that leveled an
entire cul-de-sac just two blocks away, leaving only chimneys
standing in some cases. The neighborhood remains under an evacuation
order. Even if they could return, there's no power and no internet
service, and no information about how soon either will be restored.
“What you really want to hear, nobody can tell you,” Wilson said.
“It is oddly emotional and disorienting. We did not lose any
property. From the outside it looks like a family trip — ‘Hey, kids,
we’re going to go visit Papa for a week, pack your bags.' ... And
yet you feel like something isn't right.”
Bad fire season strains resources
The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. that have
stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight
them. In Washington, there are 16 uncontained wildfires burning more
than 672 square miles (1,740 square km) and being fought by more
than 7,000 fire personnel, said Thomas Kyle-Milward, a spokesperson
for the Washington Department of Natural Resources.
“We’re looking down the barrel at one of the worst fire seasons in
state history,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington said Wednesday that senators
had received a briefing from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Wildland Fire Service
Director Brian Fennessy, who assured them that keeping firefighting
assets, including ground crews and aircraft, in the Northwest is a
priority.
“We are still at the highest risk in the nation and appreciate being
the highest resourced,” Cantwell said in a written statement.
The man charged with starting the Old Trails Fire, Aaron F.
Farinacci, 37, of Spokane, was expected to be arraigned Thursday.
According to court documents, he was arrested after a resident
reported him being in the area where the fire began. He denied
having started it when questioned by deputies.
Authorities said they previously contacted him during two fire
investigations last year, including one in a state park that
prompted evacuation notices, though he wasn’t charged in either.
In California, authorities said Wednesday that they arrested a
65-year-old man on suspicion of sparking a major wildfire by
recklessly operating equipment without complying with state fire
prevention requirements. Prosecutors will determine whether to file
criminal charges. The blaze that erupted Monday had scorched nearly
15 square miles (39 square kilometers) of forest in Calaveras County
southeast of Sacramento.
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