SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Friday morning marks the start of another rough weather pattern in Spokane County.
High winds and hot temperatures are moving in with low humidity; firefighters say that creates perfect conditions for rapid-spread fires.
Right now, the Autumn Lane fire is 37% contained, the Old Trails fire is 23% contained, and the Fairview Fire is 31% contained.
Valley Regional Fire Authority Battalion Chief Jordan Gustafson said when they arrived last weekend, the fire spread was shocking. He said the more the fires are contained, the safer this weekend will be, even if there is some spread.
“You get wind and heat like that, it’s an unstoppable force, not much you can do,” Gustafson said.
California Fire Interagency Firefighter Joe Tieso is part of hundreds of Cal Fire crews in Spokane County. He said this week they have been dealing with some worst-case scenarios.
“When the winds were blowing as hard as they were, pretty much we just have to get out of the way because life is more important than the property,” Tieso said.
But with high winds and temperatures moving in Friday, Tieso said they are looking ahead.
“The crews aren’t letting our guard down; we are not getting lulled into a sense of complacency; we are engaging in mop-up and patrolling,” Tieso said.
Those who live in this destroyed neighborhood say they hope what happened in the Indian Trails neighborhood doesn’t happen to anyone else this weekend.
Connor Townsend was helping pull out his family’s safe from the ashes when we walked by.
He said they were able to get a few things like vintage cars out safely, but not much else.
Townsend tells us his dad stood on the roof with a water hose trying to spray everything down and maybe save the house, but they finally had to evacuate as the flames moved in.
“I was just walking around and nothing, there is nothing, it’s all gone,” Townsend said.
Aaron Farinacci, the man in jail after admitting to starting the Old Trails fire that burned through Townsend’s neighborhood, was in court on Thursday. A judge set his bail at $2 million.
Townsend said he is furious the man was even in the position to be able to start the fire.
“I heard his bail was set, but he shouldn’t be out of jail in the first place. He murdered his father. Our justice system needs to be looked at; this wasn’t a natural disaster. That guy started this fire; he committed a crime,” Townsend said.
Margo and Mark Virdin used to live across the street from Townsend’s family’s home.
They tell us they built the Indian Trails home in 1984, but haven’t lived in it since 1991.
Margo was still emotional as she got out of the car and walked up to the ashes of their old home for the first time.
“I feel more emotional just seeing it; it doesn’t seem like it’s real, but it is real, and it’s real for all the people behind us,” Margo said. “I just feel bad for those people who have lost everything.”
She said she hopes in the future the houses in Spokane County are built in a way that this might not happen, but said when a fire this big roars through, there is so little that can be done.
“It could take down every house in their neighborhood. People need to be proactive because our summers are not getting any better,” Margo said.
Just down the street from Margo and Mark, Alyssa Wicks and her sister were in their grandparent’s backyard with fishing nets, standing over a koi pond.
Wicks said even though their grandparents lost everything, her grandma was mostly concerned that some of the fish in her koi pond might still be alive, so they wanted to get them out for her.
“She really cared for them; they were like her pets. On hot days she would even put ice chunks in the pond to cool them down,” Wicks said.
Armed with an Igloo cooler and two tiny nets, the sisters, the Valley Regional Fire team, and Moses Lake firefighters went fishing.
The fire crews were nearby because they were assigned to watch the neighborhood for hotspots, but thankfully there weren’t many.
After about an hour, the ragtag team of fishermen was able to get about 20 koi out of the ash-filled pond. Gustafson even took his boots off and got in the pond to try to help drain the water and find the fish more easily.
The sisters said this may seem silly, but they really wanted to give their grandma a win after such a devastating week.
The firefighters were all smiles as they posed with their cooler of koi, telling us that is what they are in Spokane for. They aren’t only fighting fires but helping people with anything they might need on the worst week of their lives.
There are 1,424 firefighters in Spokane County as of Thursday morning, with hundreds more on the way. Cal Fire said they expect that number to be around 2,000 people by Saturday.
Gustafson, like so many others, told us the same message ahead of the dicey weekend weather: “No matter where you’re from, we will work together, we will work hard, and we will get the job done.”
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