Elected officials held a joint news conference on the Spokane complex of fires, which Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown described as the worst natural disaster the region has faced, according to a report by FOX 26. She said those speaking included Governor Bob Ferguson, Senator Maria Cantwell, Congressman Michael Baumgardner, Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove, Washington National Guard General Welsh and county Commissioner Josh Kearns.
Governor Ferguson said he had spoken with the U.S. Chief Forester, who told him this is the most risked and resourced fire in the United States today and the top fire in the nation, according to the report. Ferguson said federal officials would work with Washington, Oregon and, he sensed, Idaho to make sure the region is prioritized.
Some of the officials at the news conference had themselves been evacuated, and some had lost their homes, the governor said. He warned that the region was not out of danger yet and that the next couple of days would be challenging. FOX 26 reported that hundreds of structures had been lost so far, in what it described as not a single blaze but multiple fires still burning. Officials said that as of the news conference there were no reported deaths or injuries, though they cautioned that could change given the scale of the fires and the difficulty of investigating in an active fire scene.
Ferguson said he had made a request for federal assistance from FEMA, describing two kinds of requests. The first was short-term emergency response, such as search and rescue and clearing debris, made in a call with FEMA's Region 10 administrator for specific items needed in the very short term, which he said had gone in the same way it did for a flood.
The second request was for longer-term relief, which he said takes more time and on which work had already begun, according to FOX 26. He said he anticipated the short-term request being granted in the near future and thanked FEMA for working with officials on extremely short notice.
Another official called it a devastating fire and an unprecedented catastrophe for the Spokane area, saying hundreds, if not thousands, of people were in a scary place right now, according to the report. That official said he was optimistic there would be additional support from FEMA, calling it a good precedent that the state had been successful in that process after terrible flooding on the west side of the state.
Mayor Brown said that although the fires were not out yet, care and recovery had begun the day before and would continue for as long as needed, thanking first responders and mutual-aid crews from jurisdictions near and far. Officials said the weather was not expected to improve much for the next week to 10 days and would stay dry, urging residents to remain alert and follow emergency management systems.
One official said about 5,000 individuals were fighting fires across the state, urging residents to heed evacuation notices immediately and to avoid starting any new fires. A Washington National Guard commander said crews were prepared to stay as long as it takes, cautioning that removing debris and restoring utilities would take time.
Officials said the Level 3 evacuation area alone held more than 14,000 structures, a little over 10,000 of them single-family or multifamily homes, and that they were talking about 60,000 individuals, with a high percentage responding quickly to evacuation orders that caused significant traffic congestion at a few choke points. Firefighting assets from more than a dozen states and from Australia were represented in Washington state, and officials said there were reports of a motorcyclist injured during the evacuation the day before.
In a later statement relayed by FOX, Governor Bob Ferguson said about 5,000 homes had been evacuated and about 600 homes, businesses and other buildings had been destroyed by the wildfires. He said he would request a federal emergency declaration once he had the required information, that he had spoken with President Trump and with Secretary Mullen, who pledged full support, and that officials were still assessing the potential for lives to be lost.