SPOKANE, Wash. — Some residents returned to devastated neighborhoods in eastern Washington state to find their homes leveled by wildfires that erupted across a parched landscape over the weekend, covering yards in charred debris. In some cases, only chimneys were left standing. The fires in and around Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, had burned about 12.5 square miles (about 32 square kilometres) by Monday and filled the sky with smoke and haze. Light winds and lower temperatures arrived to help firefighters, but at least 600 buildings had been destroyed and some 67,000 people were under evacuation orders. “Hundreds of people have completely lost their homes and farms, and many are prohibited from returning to their homes or neighborhoods as crews continue to extinguish smoldering embers,” the state’s entire congressional delegation wrote Monday in asking President Donald Trump to approve an expedited emergency declaration. The fires jumped roads and rivers and had burned about 12.5 square miles (about 32 square kilometres) by Monday. The sky filled with smoke and haze. Calmer winds and lower temperatures arrived to help firefighters, but it was expected to be hot and dry again by midweek. In one Spokane neighborhood, blackened vehicles, a boat twisted by the heat and melted plastic recycling bins remained. Across the street, lawns were still green and housed were spared, as residents continued to run hoses or sprinklers to water their properties. Among those who returned were Miriam and Daniel Sim, both 76. Miriam held her hand over her mouth as she surveyed the ruins of the home where they had lived since 2005. “It’s like a war zone,” Miriam said. “There’s nothing to save.” “At our age, do we want to rebuild?” her husband asked. No deaths or major injuries have been reported so far Cpl. Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, said the county initially received nearly 300 reports of missing people, but by Monday they had cleared all but 14. Those outstanding reports more likely represented people who had not been in contact since evacuating than people who were truly missing or in danger, authorities said. The Spokane-area wildfires were completely uncontained, said Courtney James, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. They were among dozens across the Western U.S. stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. At least 390 square miles (1,000 square kilometres) has burned across Washington. Authorities beseeched people not to fly drones near the burned areas, saying it could force them to delay aerial firefighting operations. Homes, cars, possessions lost in flames Angela and Wayde Deatherage, both 49, evacuated shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, grabbing a few bins of family photos and heirloom rings but not much else. Roughly 30 minutes later, their security camera was sending fire notifications to Angela’s phone. Wayde took some back roads and returned by early evening. He stopped at the end of the street and called his wife: “Our house is done.” Deatherage, however, wasn’t done with his neighborhood. He propped a hose at another house so it sprayed the property. That home survived. The couple returned to their property Sunday. “It’s just ash,” Angela said of the home where they had lived for nearly 22 years. ”It’s like our house sunk down in the basement. ... There’s just so much loss for so many people.” Friends and relatives of fire victims posted online appeals for money, clothes and basic necessities. Kory and MacKensie Aspaas were away with their children when the disaster hit. “They are coming back from being out of town to a life that’s been completely wiped out,” friend Kali Butler said. Officials said Sunday that the evacuees in Spokane included patients at its U.S. Veterans Affairs hospital. Investigators had yet to determine how the blazes started. Grassland in flames in parts of Idaho, Oregon and Utah Spokane was hardly the only place struggling to contain fires. A lightning-caused fire that has burned over 530 square miles (about 1,370 square kilometers) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon continued to grow Monday. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures. In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend and was nearly 147 square km by Monday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement. Heavy winds helped flames jump containment lines, but forward progression was slowed toward Fillmore, a town of about 2,600 people and the seat of Millard County, officials said. Mandatory evacuations were ordered Sunday evening for the town’s southern portion, and inmates at the county jail were transferred. Spokane sets up shelter for impacted residents In Spokane, about 400 people were staying at city’s main convention center, which was turned into a shelter, officials said. Spokane Public Schools opened a free emergency drop-in camp for children on Monday. Trials at the county court were pushed to Aug. 10. Several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas northwest of Spokane. Lindsey Wasson, Manuel Valdes And Gene Johnson, The Associated Press Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; Martha Bellisle in Seattle; and Ed White in Detroit contributed.
