In what authorities have described as the largest natural disaster in the history of Spokane County, Wash., wildfires have destroyed hundreds of structures and forced the evacuation of thousands of people as firefighters continued their efforts to knock back and control several blazes in the area.
On Sunday, nearly 1,000 firefighters were combating at least three wildfires that ballooned over the weekend in Spokane, which is home to about 600,000 residents. More than 5,390 acres of land have been scorched and officials said there was no containment of the fires on Sunday afternoon.
Officials said at a news conference on Sunday that there were no reported deaths, injuries or missing people as a result of the fires, but cautioned that those figures could change. Authorities also said that they were still investigating the cause.
Mayor Lisa Brown of the city of Spokane called the wildfires “the worst natural disaster our region has faced.”
Firefighters were racing to take advantage of weather conditions that had slightly improved, but could worsen again by Wednesday.
The National Weather Service said on Sunday that wind gusts would increase after noon and ease after midnight and that conditions would remain very dry, which could propel wildfires into residential areas. Officials said that the danger from fires was still elevated, but that winds were weaker than those on Saturday.
The authorities have become increasingly concerned about the rapid spread of the wildfires and the significant risks they pose to populated communities in Spokane, one of the largest counties in Washington.
On Sunday, Gov. Bob Ferguson of Washington traveled to the area to speak with local officials, days after county officials urged residents in Level 3 evacuation zones — the highest level of evacuation order — to leave immediately. About 4,000 structures were at risk of burning.
The governor said that he had spoken with President Trump and Markwayne Mullin, the homeland security secretary, to express “how dire the situation is in Spokane and across our state.” On Saturday, the governor declared a state of emergency across Washington, pointing to drought conditions, unusually high temperatures and strong winds.
More than a dozen other fires were also burning across Washington, but most of those were in less populated areas, affecting about 250,000 acres. About 4,000 firefighters were working across the state and members of the National Guard were deployed.
“The President is aware of the situation, and expressed his concern for the people of Washington during this difficult time,” Governor Ferguson said in a social media post on X, where he added that he hoped for a quick approval for the state’s request for a federal emergency declaration.
At a news conference on Sunday afternoon, the governor said that his request included search-and-rescue help and assistance for housing and food for people displaced by the fires.
Videos on social media showed billowing smoke and orange-colored skies as cars in slow-moving traffic tried to get away from the fires. Others showed scorched communities, homes and vehicles. People who evacuated their homes reported being jammed in hourslong traffic.
On Saturday, Bobbie Atwood, 46, was shopping at Walmart when she received a text from a neighbor about a fire on a nearby road. She rushed to her home on West Euclid Road to help evacuate her daughter-in-law, her two grandchildren and several pets, including 10 dogs.
Within 30 minutes, Ms. Atwood said during a phone interview on Sunday, the fire had engulfed her property. She tried to rescue as many of her animals as she could, but lost a chicken, a cat and two dogs who hid from the fire under a trailer. One of her dogs was suffering from the effects of burned paw pads.
She had waited on the street for her dogs to come out, but quickly it became too dangerous for her to stay behind. The property she had inherited from a friend and worked to build up from another wildfire that devastated the area in 2015, was gone.
On Sunday, she cried as she recalled the loss of her pets and the loss of the property she spent years rebuilding, which was not insured.
“The most important thing is that the kids and I came out, and my grandkids,” Ms. Atwood said. “I wish I could’ve gotten all the pets out, but I tried my best.”
Benjamin Cossel, the spokesman for the California Interagency Incident Management Team 7, which began leading the firefighting effort on Sunday morning after coming in from working on other wildfires in Oregon on Saturday, called the Spokane wildfires the “No. 1 priority fire in the nation,” because of its proximity to many homes.
Residents in the Pacific Northwest have dealt with a record-breaking wildfire season this summer, largely because of excessive drought and heat. More than 1,000 fires have burned this year in Washington alone, covering about 425,000 acres, according to the Washington Department of Natural Resources.
On Saturday, forecasters with the National Weather Service had issued their most urgent alert — “a particularly dangerous situation” red-flag warning — for large parts of eastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. It marked the first time such a warning was issued in Washington, officials said.
The Old Trails and Autumn Lane fires jumped the Spokane River on Saturday and were encroaching on a nearby canyon on Sunday, Mr. Cossel said, moving northwest away from the city of Spokane, but into the surrounding wilderness.
If the fire continues into the canyon, which local residents call Look Out Mountain, it could grow exponentially.
“The possibility for things to go sideways if it gets established in that canyon is pretty high,” he said, adding that “there is nothing really there to stop it.”
On Sunday, several aircraft dropped retardant and water on the flames.
“This is an extraordinary wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest,” Dave Upthegrove, the state’s commissioner of public lands, said at the Sunday news conference. “It’s not a normal season. A confluence of weather conditions, a confluence of fires throughout the West, are stretching our resources and challenging the individuals in this response.”
Response resources from across the nation have been called on to combat this blaze, Mr. Cossel said, depleting already limited reserves.
“We have multiple large incidents across the nation,” Mr. Cossel said, “resources are absolutely tapped.”
Bernard Mokam contributed reporting.
