Spokane County got some much-needed good news on the wildfires burning there, as all evacuation orders were lifted on Tuesday afternoon, FOX 13 Seattle reported. The Spokane County Sheriff said the decision came after major progress from fire crews, allowing residents who had been forced from their homes to begin returning to their neighborhoods after days of dangerous conditions across the county.
Overnight, containment levels jumped for all three of the fires that had been threatening the area. The largest of them, the Autumn Lane fire, is staying put at 5,700 acres in size and is now 89 percent contained, a sharp turnaround for a blaze that had earlier driven mandatory evacuations and kept crews working around the clock to hold the lines.
The other two fires also moved close to being fully surrounded. The Old Trails fire remains at 3,100 acres and is now 73 percent contained, while the Fairview fire is almost completely wrapped up at 97 percent containment. Together, the improving numbers gave officials enough confidence to pull back the evacuation orders that had been in place across the county.
Even with the fires coming under control, the toll on the area is significant. Fire crews estimate that more than 900 structures, meaning homes, buildings and barns, were either damaged or destroyed by the flames. As they get a handle on the blazes, crews have also begun sharing images of the devastation they faced during the days-long fight to protect the county.
Among the losses was one of the crews' own vehicles. A burned-out engine belonging to Spokane County Fire District 10 was destroyed during the Old Trails fire, the department said. The engines typically carry up to 2,000 gallons of water and are a critical tool for crews working in areas where hydrants and other water sources are scarce.
According to the district, the driver was shuttling water to fight the flames when conditions on the ground deteriorated, causing the engine to enter a ditch and become immobilized before it was overtaken. No injury to the driver was reported in the account, and the district said it is now working to identify and secure funding to replace the lost engine so it can restore its firefighting capacity.
The threat is not entirely over, however. Forecasters warned of a red flag warning in effect for Wednesday because of possible thunderstorms that could bring wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour, erratic winds and lightning strikes. The risk stretches across the northern portion of central and eastern Washington toward the Idaho border and up toward the Canadian border, keeping fire crews on alert even as the current fires wind down.
