As black clouds of smoke billowed over Spokane Monday evening, one thing was clear: Breathing the air could be hazardous.

But when a Spokesman-Review reporter scrambled to find a public health official with the expertise to provide advice for the public, she nearly was stymied. It wasn’t until she called the Spokane Regional Health District’s fired public health officer, Dr. Kim Thorburn, that she found a voice willing to share the appropriate warnings.

Later, a public health administrator explained the convergence of missed phone message and vacation schedules that caused the gap. It was pretty obvious, he added, that people should avoid breathing that air.

But here’s the thing about journalism: We aren’t allowed to make this stuff up. Thorburn spelled out the details. The fumes particularly were likely to pose a threat to people with respiratory illnesses such as asthma, she said. She recommended staying indoors to avoid lingering fumes and making sure the doors and windows were shut.

In an emergency such as this week’s fire, the public depends on journalists to quickly compile and disseminate the information they need to protect their own health and that of their families. And journalists depend on the expertise and quick response of public health professionals.

It was clear the communications among the various protection agencies – including the Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, the state Department of Ecology and the health district – weren’t fully coordinated that day.

The agencies must work together to sort those difficulties out.

Because even though citizens survived that evening’s dark plumes of smoke, there’s the chance this emergency was only a warm-up for whatever threats may lie in the future.

Here in the Inland Northwest, our risks range from natural disasters, such as fires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes, dam failures, volcanic eruptions and landslides, to bioterrorism. We certainly hope they don’t strike.

But in anticipation of a widespread emergency or disaster, all the bugs that hit the system this time need to be worked out.

The health district, lumbering through an expensive, yearlong search process to replace Thorburn, needs to nail down its protocols for responding to such emergencies.

And all the appropriate agencies should come together to figure out how they’ll communicate.

The bottom line is this: The confusion that reigned in the midst of that fire should never be allowed to happen again.