Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed an amended emergency proclamation on Monday in response to the wildfires burning across the eastern and central parts of the state, and he announced that Washington will soon seek a major disaster declaration to unlock financial assistance for affected individuals. Ferguson framed the move as the next step in what he described as a long-haul recovery, recalling that at a press conference a week earlier he had warned residents the state would be dealing with the aftermath for a long time. He said his central task as governor now is to make sure every resource state government can offer is directed to people who have lost their homes and livelihoods.
The scale of the destruction has been severe in the Spokane area, where at the peak of the emergency roughly 67,000 people were forced to evacuate and nearly 1,000 structures, including homes, businesses and other buildings, were destroyed or damaged. Ferguson said he had visited a devastated neighborhood the day before, meeting homeowners and first responders, among them firefighters who had traveled from California and other states to help alongside Washington crews. He described the American Red Cross placing a box of protective gear and masks at each damaged home so residents could safely sift through the rubble, and praised the aid he saw at a convention center serving as a shelter.
The amended proclamation applies to individuals affected by the fires across seven counties and three tribal nations. The counties are Chelan, Ferry, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens, Douglas and Yakima, while the tribes named are the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Spokane Tribe of Indians. The measure waives and suspends a series of state laws, which Ferguson grouped into three categories aimed at individuals, businesses and health care. It builds on an emergency proclamation he signed on Saturday, August 1, that imposed a burn ban across Washington state running through September.
For individuals, Ferguson noted that many residents lost virtually everything, including critical personal documents such as driver's licenses, identification cards, birth certificates and vehicle and vessel titles. Under the proclamation, the Department of Health and the Department of Licensing will work on site at an emergency disaster center to help people obtain new copies, with licensing records available immediately and vital records available starting the following day, and the governor stipulated that there be no charge for anyone affected by the fires. The order also lets the Department of Licensing grant extra time to renew business and professional licenses for those who missed deadlines because of the wildfires.
The proclamation broadens two financial aid programs for disaster victims. The State Individual Assistance Program, meant for people who lose their homes during a declared emergency, is opened to everyone without insurance who lost a home, regardless of household income. The Family Emergency Assistance Program, which provides cash assistance to families with children during a disaster, is extended to include families without children, and where that program is normally available only once per year, the order allows families hit by the wildfires to access it each month if needed.
Ferguson also eased the rules around unemployment benefits for people put out of work by the fires. State law normally requires a one-week waiting period before benefits begin, and the proclamation suspends that waiting period so affected Washingtonians receive their payments immediately. In addition, recipients of unemployment benefits are usually required to prove each week that they are actively searching for a job, and the order suspends that job-search requirement for those impacted by the wildfires, removing a step for residents already coping with displacement and loss.
On housing, the proclamation moves to protect residents from losing their homes twice over. It limits the ability to serve or act on eviction orders for the next two weeks, unless there is an immediate health or safety risk or the tenant received a full nine days' written notice of an owner's intent to occupy or sell the property. It also bars landlords statewide from evicting tenants for taking in people and pets displaced by the fires, and prevents landlords from seizing property deemed abandoned when a resident had to leave because of the fires. For health care, the order lets the Department of Health give providers extra time to renew their licenses so they can keep treating patients during the emergency.