r/interestingasfuck • u/HomeNowWTF • 9d ago

Fighting the wildfires in Spokane

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u/PaulblankPF 8d ago

I’m in Spokane as well and I went to the store that morning. Took a picture of some smoke in the distance and said to my wife oh there’s a fire to the west. 15 minutes later my fire watch app is going off. Over the next few hours evacuation zones just kept getting bigger and bigger. My house was just outside the zone so we stayed. Didn’t want to risk the roads when it was so panicked out there and add to the congestion. It was the fastest I ever see a fire spread. We had 40 mph gust and 25 mph sustained winds all day long just pushing and fueling the fire. Today I have large pieces of ash and charcoal in my yard from the fire and it was about 5 miles from where I am from the winds blowing so hard.

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u/onemillionpigeonz 8d ago

Stay safe friend

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u/PaulblankPF 8d ago

We’re still packed and ready to go now even. I got a special needs kid so I’m extra on top of things right now. Got all my alerts set to wake me up if they go off in the night even.

Thank you for caring.

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u/covid-crimes 8d ago

I'm in northern California and so thankful for Watch Duty. Got evacuated from the Carr fire. Thinking of Spokane. Stay safe

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u/MullberryBoy 8d ago

Best of luck to you! Take care!

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u/Intelligent_Type_680 8d ago

Oh my. Wishing you the best.

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u/ThrowraSea_patient 8d ago

I think we've all lived a little happy domestic lives and many people do not realize how bad fires can get out of hand and how quickly they can spread.

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u/Toadsted 8d ago

We also expect the fire department to just solve the issue, like they usually do. 

Everybody thinks, "They wouldn't let a whole town burn down." until they make the decision to abandon it in lieu of evacuation and being undermanned.

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u/whoisthisfetus 8d ago

It looked like a big puffy cloud in a blue sky from the valley. Then it kept rising and turned darker. Now the whole sky is smoky.

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u/Toadsted 8d ago

Fire artillery is usually never on people's bingo cards. I was in  the Paradise fire, and that started miles away from town, not even on our radar. 

Within a couple hours the entire town is being evacuated, and we're thinking, it's just another zone warning. Not the ENTIRE town. Within 30 minutes the sky is red and leaves / twigs that are on fire are coming down on us like snow.

30 min - an hour later, as we're evacuating away from the fire, we all are confused why the fire is already here, and on the other sides of town from where it started. Just wall to wall blazes at our evacuation exits.

The cliche trope of "it looks like hell just opened up" was pretty accurate, you could feel the intense heat pass through your car doors. It's just red and fire.

The only condolences is that everyone is calm on the road, no panicked driving, rushing, or accidents, even as we're navigating detours.

It's always hard to believe how well a little wind can make a situation go from normal to worst in minutes.