Firefighters get a handle on Spokane wildfires as tens of thousands remain evacuated

firefighters get a handle on Spokane wildfires as tens of thousands remain evacuated 0 seconds of 1 minute, 44 secondsVolume 0% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? 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Shortly after, Child says his daughter saw the fire. (AP video: Manuel Valdes) More Videos 0 seconds of 52 secondsVolume 90% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 00:00 00:52 00:52 More Videos Close 2 of 8 | The fires, which hadn’t been contained at all as of Tuesday morning, have destroyed at least 700 buildings and forced about 67,000 people to evacuate. More Videos 0 seconds of 55 secondsVolume 90% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 Next Up wildfires force George Clooney's family to evacuate their home in southern France 00:49 Auto1080p1080p720p540p360p270p180p 00:00 00:55 00:55 More Videos Close 3 of 8 | firefighters have taken advantage of cooler weather to begin getting a handle on wildfires around Washington state’s second-largest city. The fires have destroyed about 850 buildings and forced the evacuation of around 67,000 people since they erupted last weekend. (AP video: Manuel Valdes) 4 of 8 | Michelle Angstrom reacts to her burned down home and property after a wildfire hit the northwest part of Spokane, Wash., Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) 5 of 8 | 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) 6 of 8 | A burned section of trees is marked with pink tape Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in an area near the origin point of the Old Trails Fire, after a man was arrested, suspected of starting the wildfire in Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) 7 of 8 | A line of burned cars sit in a parking lot Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) 8 of 8 | firefighters inspect an area at Wyakin Park after a wildfire hit the northern part of Spokane, Wash., Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) CORRECTION: Wyakin Park, not Weaken Park By Manuel Valdes, MARTHA BELLISLE and GENE JOHNSON Updated 11:43 PM MESZ, August 5, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit 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. 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.” Fires near Spokane, Washington, have burned 600 structures and forced 60,000 evacuations 2 MIN READ Man charged with setting Spokane’s largest wildfire was questioned about 2 other blazes last year 3 MIN READ Authorities arrest arson suspect in connection with one of the devastating Spokane wildfires 3 MIN READ 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. 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.” 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. This story has been corrected to show that the last name of the VA medical center spokesperson is Bowers, not Bower. Johnson and Bellisle reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Ed White contributed from Detroit. MARTHA BELLISLE Bellisle is an investigative reporter based in Washington state. She covers a variety of topics, including police accountability, immigration, and federal workers. twitter mailto