Wildfires Destroy Hundreds of Structures in Washington State

Hundreds of structures have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, as wildfires rip through eastern Washington state in what Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown called “the worst natural disaster our region has faced.”

As of about 2 p.m. New York time Sunday, the Old Trails incident had consumed 3,619 acres, the Fairview fire had grown to 1,056 acres, and the Autumn Lane fire had expanded to 3,351 acres, the Washington Department of Natural Resources said on its website.

Over 10,000 residences have been evacuated, Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall said at an emergency press conference Sunday. More than 60,000 people were evacuated in Spokane, a metropolitan area of about 600,000 residents.

“There are so many Washingtonians that have lost everything in a very, very short period of time,” Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said during the Sunday press conference. “Just in a matter of hours, their lives changed in deeply traumatic and fundamental ways, and so it’s difficult to find words when folks have experienced a loss like that.”

There are no reported serious injuries or fatalities, as of 5 p.m. New York time Sunday, Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said at Sunday’s press conference.

Ferguson said he spoke with President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin after requesting an emergency declaration to access federal funding.

“The president was very gracious, as was Secretary Mullin,” said the governor, who talked more extensively with the DHS Secretary to request short- and long-term Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance.

Emergency centers were set up at the Spokane Convention Center and at the local fairgrounds on Saturday night to handle residents with recreational vehicles and those who took their animals and pets with them, according to the city.

“Leave now! This may be your only notice,” an emergency alert warned residents. People “must leave now due to life-threatening conditions in your area!”

The state government deployed 100 National Guard members to help local authorities manage the emergency. “Every one of those National Guard members is here to assist you and is here to assist the Spokane law enforcement community,” Major General Gent Welsh, the Washington National Guard adjutant general, said in Sunday’s press conference. “Don’t make up any other reasons for why the National Guard is on your streets.”

For weeks, fires across the Pacific Northwest have burned thousands of acres and sent plumes of acrid smoke into the sky, causing air quality alerts throughout the area and further afield across the US and Canada. Power has been shut off to residents around Spokane, as well as further south, to prevent electric equipment from sparking wildfires, Avista Corp., which provides service to four states, said on its website. The company operates 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of transmission lines through the region.

Across Washington, more than 11,800 customers remain without power as of Sunday afternoon after reaching a peak of 17,600 customers in the morning, according to PowerOutage.com. More than 9,000 of those customers are located in Spokane County.

Here in Spokane meeting with local officials to get information about what support they need. Once I have that required information, I will be requesting a federal emergency declaration in order to mobilize federal resources to meet those needs.

I’m also in direct communication…

— Governor Bob Ferguson (@GovBobFerguson) August 2, 2026

On Saturday, Ferguson declared a statewide emergency and an outdoor burn ban through September due to the ongoing drought, immediate weather conditions and fires.

Elevated fire weather conditions are expected to persist across eastern Washington and parts of 12 other states as dry winds sweep the area, the US Storm Prediction Center said. Parts of Montana, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming face a critical, or level 2, risk of fires on Sunday.

In Spokane, temperatures were forecast to reach 82F Monday, the National Weather Service said.

There are at least 10 large fires around Washington and through July 29, 1,038 blazes had burned 426,666 acres, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources website.

An area roughly half the size of Rhode Island has burned so far this year, Dave Upthegrove, Washington’s commissioner of public lands, said in a statement on Friday. Crews from at least 14 states as well as Australia have been fighting the blazes along with troops from the Washington National Guard troops.

“As a state, we’ve already hit the fifth largest amount of acres burned this century,” Upthegrove said.

Top photo: A burned truck sits in the driveway of burned out residential home in the Balboa neighborhood of Spokane, Washington, on August 2. Photographer: Erick Doxey/AFP/Getty Images. Bloomberg.