Gray fire: Rain brings relief to fire lines as residents return home

Tuesday’s rain showers eased hazardous conditions and freed up resources to evaluate structures destroyed or damaged in the Gray fire as more residents were allowed to return home, said Spokane County Fire District 3 Chief Cody Rohrbach.

“It’s absolutely helping us to get the line secure and get the hot spots mopped up,” Rohrbach said. “It’s really accelerating our options.”

Residents in the majority of the Gray fire zone were cleared to return home at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Just one neighborhood west of Silver Lake remained closed due to hazardous conditions, Rohrbach said.

The Gray fire has burned more than 10,000 acres in and around Medical Lake and was 25% contained as of Tuesday.

All people reported missing within Spokane County fire zones were accounted for Tuesday, said Sheriff John Nowels.

Avista and Inland Power were unable to restore power to 259 meters due to severe damage as of Tuesday afternoon, Rohrbach said.

It’s unclear how many of those structures are primary residences or secondary, like shops or guest houses. That count does not include structures without power.

Residents, like Fred McDowell, 89, returned to their properties Tuesday ready to figure out their next steps.

McDowell and his wife of 69 years fled their home Friday night unsure what they would return to. His neighbors called once the smoke dissipated a bit to let him know his house survived.

“They saved my house,” McDowell said. “The best damn guys on the planet: firefighters.”

His neighbors weren’t so lucky. Smoke emanated from the rubble that once was their home as rain drizzled .

McDowell said he’s still “heartsick” about the state of his property, with much of the yard burned and the fence gone.

Still, the retired U.S. Air Force nurse knows how lucky he is to have a home to return to.

“There are a lot of other people that are worse off than I am,” McDowell said, before revving up his chain saw to chop up the remains of a fence post.

Tuesday morning, fire crews awoke to rain, which helped them put out hot spots and slow progress of the blaze.

“It has finally allowed us to get a little rest,” Rohrbach said.

On Monday alone, the fire district responded to four fires not related to Gray.

“It continues to be busy not just from this incident but from new starts as well,” he said.

The rain has helped first responders dedicate more resources to assessing damage and putting out hot spots.

Crews spent much of the day mopping up a 25- to 50-foot barrier along the fire line to prevent spread. They also worked on creating barriers around structures within the fire line to prevent any more structure loss.

Enough of that work had been completed by 4 p.m. to allow residents to return home with some conditions, Rohrbach said at an afternoon incident update.

“What we really want to communicate to our community is that it still is a hazardous environment,” Rohrbach said. “There’s still burning areas within the fire.”

Avista and Inland Power had numerous crews in the area fixing power lines and putting in new power poles.

The area south to the end of Greenfield Lane, west to the end of Genni Rock and Page Pond and north of Lakehurst/ Lakeview remained closed Tuesday night due to hazardous conditions.

“We’re really asking folks if you’re not a resident, if you don’t have properties in there, please don’t enter those areas,” Rohrbach said after listing the dangers in the area.

Nowels warned residents that conditions can change. They should not treat the ability to return home as life returning to normal, he said.

Law enforcement will maintain a strong presence in the area over the coming days, he said. The sheriff’s office in coordination with Spokane police arrested a man and a woman Monday night for allegedly burglarizing homes within the evacuation zone.

The pair had come over from Tacoma and posed as firefighters to get through road blocks, he said.

“We are going to keep those resources in the community to make sure that we can minimize or eliminate all those other crimes occurring,” Nowels said.

Anyone with damage caused by something other than the fire should report it to Crime Check at (509) 456-2233, Nowels said.

As cleanup continues, additional resources will be available to people affected by the fire, he said. It’s important for anyone displaced by fires in the Spokane region, whether they lost property or not, to register with the Red Cross either by going to an area shelter or via phone so they can be set up with case management.

That registration will be a vital tool to connect people with resources, Nowels said.

No additional deaths have been reported in either the Gray or Oregon Road fires, leaving the death toll at one fatality for each.

Firefighters on the Oregon Road fire near Elk now number 633. The fire has burned 11,036 acres as of Tuesday and destroyed more than 80 structures. Evacuation orders remain in place for areas east and southeast of Elk.

The cause of both fires remains under investigation.