Wildfires Erupt In Spokane Gusting Winds Fan Careless Acts Into Crackling Flame

It was a hot and hellish Thursday in Spokane and Stevens counties as swirling winds pushed wildfires across a combustible carpet of ice storm debris.

At least two homes and a fire truck were destroyed by a 1,200-acre fire burning near Tum Tum, Wash., and several outbuildings and fences were charred by a 500-acre blaze scorching the West Plains.

Authorities advised dozens of people to evacuate their homes as more than 300 firefighters from Eastern Washington and North Idaho streamed into the woods west of Spokane to battle flames racing through timber and brush.

Four giant air tankers on lease to the U.S. Forest Service, including two Vietnam-era C-130 Hercules transports, dropped 35,000 gallons of retardant on the blazes.

The state Department of Natural Resources threw 10 fire engines, seven bulldozers and four helicopters into the fray.

But the fires - reportedly sparked by human carelessness - were still burning late Thursday, and local authorities were calling for help from across the region.

Efforts to contain the fires were hampered by 90-degree temperatures, 30-mph gusts and rugged terrain with 60-degree slopes.

Hot updrafts shooting off hills prevented helicopters from dumping water in some areas, officials said.

“We’re not sure we can hold it,” said Fire Marshal Garry Miller of the Spokane Fire Department.

The DNR planned to send as many as 500 more firefighters into the area today.

“We’re at a critical point in time,” Miller said about 8 p.m. “The weather is going to determine whether we can fight this fire or not.”

Smoke from the West Plains blaze billowed across north Spokane, setting off smoke detectors in the Westgate Village subdivision off Nine Mile Road. Residents in the Indian Trail neighborhood reported seeing towering flames on ridges above Riverside State Park.

City fire crews prepared for the fire to jump the Spokane River near Rifle Club Road. Several sparks flew into the city limits but were quickly extinguished.

No injuries were reported.

The fires began within an hour of each other, DNR officials said.

The first ignited just after 1 p.m. when people burning weeds in a pit near Tum Tum lost control of their fire, witnesses said.

The second began about 40 minutes later near Old Trails and Newkirk roads west of Spokane. A man using a blowtorch to repair a boat said a red-hot bolt fell off the frame and ignited some tall grass.

Both fires quickly raced out of control, fueled by tons of limbs and leaves ripped down during last November’s ice storm and roasted by the recent hot temperatures.

“It’s unbelievable,” Liza Lies said as flames roared near her parents’ home on Dowdy Road, west of Spokane. “It seems these fires always start on a windy day. And all this ice storm stuff isn’t helping.”

By 2 p.m., officials were advising people in the sparsely populated Red Lake and Tum Tum areas to be ready to evacuate.

A Bureau of Indian Affairs crew working to save a house in the 7000 block of state Highway 291 lost a brush rig to the fire.

Flames lept along the ground and quickly spiraled into the trees, forcing the the BIA workers to run for their lives. A few minutes later, the fire reached the brush truck, igniting the hoses and eventually causing the gas tank to explode.

All that was left was a charred hulk of black steel.

Fire Capt. Dean Carlson, out-fitted in a yellow fire suit, did not notice the flames in the tree-tops above him as he worked to save houses near Tum Tum.

“You know how rock climbers don’t look down? Firefighters don’t look up,” Carlson said.

Gonzaga University math Professor John Burke worried that his trapezoid-shaped home near Tum Tum was destroyed.

“I live up there,” said Burke, soaked with sweat and pointing to the smoke-filled woods. “Well, I used to live there. It’s burning down now.”

By 7 p.m., the fire was burning in rugged terrain away from populated areas, according to DNR firefighter Shawn Soliday.

There are no roads into the country, and officials were relying on aircraft to dump water and retardant on the flames, Soliday said. “They’re saving our butts,” he said.

The Washington State Patrol closed Highway 291 near Tum Tum as the fire crossed Long Lake.

In the West Plains area, where wildfires have scorched thousands of acres during the past three years, people hurried horses into stock trailers and threw belongings into car trunks.

Sprinklers spat water on roofs as residents rushed home from work to protect their houses.

Caralee Schmitz watched as firefighters moved through a command post set up at the Great Northern School on Euclid Road.

“Fires happen every year, but this is the closest it’s ever come,” said Schmitz, hanging on to her two Great Danes, Echo and Notso.

Schmitz said her family has been trying to establish a “green zone” around their house in the 7700 block of West Euclid to better protect it from fires.

“But, if the wind turns, what we’ve done is not going to be enough,” she said.

Still, not everyone was impressed with Thursday’s fires.

“We’ve actually been pretty lucky this year. It’s not been as bad as I’ve seen it,” said Spokane Fire Lt. Jeff Wainwright, recalling Firestorm ‘91 and the catastrophic fires that ravaged Central Washington in 1994.

“This one here was a bit more manageable.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Graphic: Newkirk Road fire

MEMO: Changed in Spokane edition.

This sidebar appeared with the story: TWIN BLAZES The first ignited just after 1 p.m. when people burning weeds in a pit near Tum Tum lost control of their fire, witnesses said. The second began about 40 minutes later near Old Trails and Newkirk roads west of Spokane. A man using a blowtorch to repair a boat said a red-hot bolt fell off the frame and ignited some tall grass.