Wildfires Trigger 800 Evacuations in Spokane Area, Near Sisters Home

We're not the only ones experiencing brush and wildfires, the Spokane area has seen hundreds of evacuations due to tinder dry conditions and fires as well. These pictures are of one of a number of various sized fires near my sister's home in Spokane Valley. This one destroyed at least one house. It was apparently just over the hill, and moving fast.

The Spokesman Review and KHQ-TV report at least 800 homes have been evacuated in the area of Upriver Drive, North Spokane, and some areas of the Valley and East due to brush fires. While Spokane is known for it's evergreens, they still have large grass and brush areas similar to ours.

Tinder dry conditions have sparked a number of blazes. Aerial drops and water bombers are dumping water literally over some residential areas, according to my sister. She lives just off the Pines Road exit in the City of Spokane Valley, and said choppers and a water bomber were 'buzzing' over her home Tuesday evening.  (the City of Spokane Valley was incorporated a few years ago from all the suburbs formerly known as Green Acres, Veradale, Dishman, and Opportunity).

That was a rather unnerving experience she said. she snapped these photos of a blaze that had already destroyed at least one home, and it was only about a mile or two away. She thought it was further, but then fire crews were seen setting up lines not that far away. Hundreds of homeowners near the Upriver Dam area were forced to leave as fire crept very close to the area.

Upriver Dam is located right in the middle of residential areas interspersed with a few open fields, it's less than a mile from West Valley High school to the East, and less than a mile to the West from Chief Garry Park, where our family was at earlier this summer for a baseball tournament for our daughter Harley and her Kennewick National 10-U baseball team!