SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
Topeka, Kansas: Wildfires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area while destroying at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said on Sunday (Washington time).
The fires in and around Spokane, the state’s second-largest city, burned about 21 square kilometres over the weekend and were among dozens of wildfires across the Western US that stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them.
A total of about 1000 square kilometres has burned across the state, and some of the fires, including those in the Spokane area, have not been contained.
Fire and law enforcement officials said there had been no reports of injuries or people unaccounted for, but they stressed it was early in the response effort.
Officials also said the evacuees in Spokane included patients at its US Veterans Affairs hospital.
Video from the Spokane area showed buildings on fire, black smoke billowing up near neighbourhoods, and the smoking ruins of homes, with only chimneys still standing. Several officials expressed concern that the area did not appear likely to get a break in coming days from the weather, which is expected to remain dry.
“We are not out of danger,” US senator Maria Cantwell said during a news conference with federal, state and local officials in Spokane. “The next couple of days will be challenging.”
Investigators had yet to determine how the blazes started.
Spokane was hardly the only place struggling to contain fires.
Crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for a 10th day to fight a fire that has burned about 1360 square kilometres of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire was threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.
The weather in the area was expected to remain sunny and dry well into the week, with temperatures rising to more than 32 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. Officials say the fire was caused by lightning.
In central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend, jumping from 41 square kilometres to about 145 square kilometres by Sunday morning. More than 100 cattle have been killed, according to local law enforcement.
Officials called the fire “catastrophic” as heavy winds helped flames jump containment lines overnight. The fire is moving north towards Fillmore, a town of about 2600 people and the seat of Millard County. Mandatory evacuations were ordered on Sunday evening for the southern portion of Fillmore.
The National Weather Service issued warnings about the air quality across the north-west. It issued red-flag fire warnings for parts of Utah and Montana and western Nebraska, and extreme heat warnings for the southern parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and northern Montana.
While temperatures on Sunday in Spokane were forecast to remain below 27 C, wind gusts from 56km/h to 72km/h had been expected by the afternoon, said Benjamin Cossel, public information officer for the federal response team from California called on Saturday night to deal with the fires.
“We have weather working against us, and we have terrain working against us,” Cossel said.
There were three fires in the Spokane area: the Old Trails Fire, the Fairview Fire and the Meadowview Fire. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency on Saturday, and the National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert for eastern Washington.
Cossel said that as it got warmer during the day, cool air that was closer to the ground and keeping winds at bay would rise, allowing those winds to move through the area. The Spokane River cuts through the city of about 229,000 people, and there are steep canyons on both sides that channel the wind.
“They push the fire through the canyons, up, up the slopes, and then outside the slopes and around,” he said. “It’s very, very hilly, very, very steep slopes, a lot of canyons that create really turbulent, really challenging sort of wind scenarios.”
Authorities in Spokane set up a shelter at the city’s main convention centre. About 400 people were staying there, officials said on Sunday.
Spokane County commissioner Chris Jordan said relatives of his were in an area affected by the fires and that they did not know if their home was still standing. He said he spoke with them as they were leaving the home.
“They’re in their car and all they can see is smoke everywhere, and it was incredibly scary for so many people,” he said during the news conference.
Heather Rosenstrater, president and CEO of Avista Corp, the area’s electric and natural gas utility, said about 10,000 people were without power on Sunday, down from a peak of 30,000. Avista needed to repair two transmission lines, she said, so it was possible that demand for electricity over the next few days could cause outages.
Meanwhile, several larger fires continued to burn in less populated areas north-west of Spokane, including one about 129 kilometres from the city that has burned about 544 square kilometres. Another fire in eastern Oregon, about 113 kilometres to the north-west in the Stinkingwater Mountains, has burned about 870 square kilometres.
“The whole north-west is heavily impacted right now,” said Keila Vizcarra, the spokesperson for the federal team from California handling what’s been named the Big Grass Fire in western Idaho and eastern Oregon.
AP
