By Garrett Cabeza
The Spokesman-Review
SPOKANE, Wash. — “Burn Spokane Down” graffiti showed up downtown prior to five human-caused fires, including four that were “purposefully set,” igniting Thursday on the west side of the city, fire officials said at a news conference Friday.
“We haven’t found a direct connection between those messages that were downtown to these fires, but that’s certainly an important part of this investigation,” Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer told reporters Friday.
Schaeffer, standing near the edge of a cliff overlooking Thursday’s fire scene, said firefighters responded Thursday afternoon to the blaze that broke out on the south side of Sunset Highway behind the Catalyst Project housing building. The fire jumped the highway to the north and quickly established itself on a hillside, threatening dozens of homes and businesses.
During that time, four additional fires not believed to be related to the original fire started in close proximity to the Sunset Highway fire.
“That creates an exceptionally dangerous situation for firefighters and an equally tactically challenging situation for incident commanders, because resources are needed in multiple areas,” Schaeffer said. “Communications can be confusing. Traffic can be exceptionally difficult when we’re trying to evacuate a neighborhood and also having concurrent fires in the area of the evacuations.”
The fires caused road closures and traffic delays Thursday in the West Hills Neighborhood.
Schaeffer said having so many fires in one area was frustrating because they prohibited people from evacuating.
“That doesn’t get any more serious,” he said.
The fires also created great danger for firefighters.
“If you could imagine focusing forward on a fire that is getting ready to overtake the businesses and the houses and yourself,” Schaeffer said. “At the same time, you have a fire that is set behind you that you don’t even know about it. Worst-case scenario for us and our people, and we’re certainly searching for the person or persons responsible for setting those fires.”
While the four additional fires were intentionally set, Schaeffer said investigators are unsure whether the Sunset Highway fire was set on purpose. It was human-caused and “suspicious,” though, he said.
He said it would have been “physically impossible” for embers from the first fire to ignite any of the other four blazes because of the distance and wind pattern. Plus, burn patterns on the ground indicated someone started the fires.
Schaeffer said messages regarding burning Spokane that day were written on a number of areas downtown and were reported to police Thursday morning, hours before the fires started.
One message read, “Burn Spokane Down 8/3/23 — $900 million, We Not Housed, Burn Spokane.” It was written on a support pole of the railroad viaduct on Lincoln Street near the Steam Plant Restaurant and Brew Pub.
Schaeffer said investigators need to comb through lots of forensic evidence and cellphone and surveillance footage from the West Hills neighborhood, which will take a long time.
The fires burned about 8 acres, he said. There were no injuries and no property loss.
“The outcome was just outstanding,” Schaeffer said.
Spokane County fire districts, Bureau of Land Management and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources assisted Spokane firefighters in putting out the blazes, according to a Spokane Fire Department news release.
Air resources dropping water and retardant were critical in keeping the fire on the north side of the highway from burning structures, firefighters said.
“Without them, there most certainly would have been significant damage to the structures,” the release said.
Firefighters gained control of the fire Thursday night, according to the release.
Schaeffer said city and Department of Natural Resources crews manned the fire Thursday. They were expected to leave the scene at 7 p.m. Friday, and crews will occasionally check for hot spots after that.
Schaeffer said suspicious fires and calls for service in general have increased this summer for Spokane firefighters.
He asked residents to call 911 if they see suspicious activity or smoke, and to send surveillance footage that captures suspicious activity to law enforcement as soon as possible.
The Department of Natural Resources banned campfires on lands it manages in northeast Washington because hot and dry weather has increased wildfire danger, according to a news release from the agency. The ban took effect Friday.
Campfires are now prohibited on all DNR-managed lands east of the Cascades after the agency’s Southeast Region implemented a similar restriction July 13.
Here’s an update on other fires that broke out this week in the region:
Parkway fire
A fire on Avista Utilities land in Post Falls spurred evacuations Friday for people living near the Spokane River in the city.
The Idaho Department of Land said on social media that the Parkway fire was burning within 200 feet of homes. It broke out Friday afternoon.
It was burning about 20 acres near Avista’s Post Falls dam on an island in the river.
“We are aware of the fire that is currently burning south of our Post Falls Hydroelectric Facility,” a statement from Avista reads. “At this time, we do not anticipate impacts to our facilities; however, we are closely monitoring the situation and are in communication with first responders to ensure we are adequately prepared for all possibilities. Our hearts go out to the community and people who are or may be affected by this incident.”
Level 3, or immediate, evacuations have been called for people on Parkway Drive, Park Lane, Parkview Drive and surrounding areas, according to Kootenai County Emergency Management. Residents from Riverview Drive and Riverview Terrace north to the Spokane River were also under immediate evacuation orders.
An evacuation shelter was set up at Mullan Trail Elementary School, but no one had shown up by around 7 p.m., said Summer Warfield, disaster program manager with the Red Cross.
“People tend to not want to leave their homes,” she said.
At least four planes, plus two or more helicopters, could be seen repeatedly dropping water on the fire as hundreds of people watched from along the river.
One of them was Jacob Lippert, who said he’s never seen a fire with this kind of response so close to the city.
Lippert said the fire is “a little bit scary,” but the response is “comforting.” He thanked the aviators for their work.
“Q’emiln is a great park, and we should preserve it as best we can,” Lippert said of the popular nearby recreation destination. “It’s important that we save it.”
With strong winds blowing, the smell of smoke began to permeate the city.
Bo Snyder said he has friends who live close to the fire.
Snyder, who lives in Liberty Lake, visits the park often. He called the fire “nerve-wracking.”
“You don’t realize it can happen until it happens,” he said.
Snyder also was thinking about the animals on the island.
“What did the animals do?” he asked.
With worsening drought and hot summer weather gripping the state, officials in North Idaho already had announced strict burn restrictions Friday to go into effect Wednesday in the five northern counties of Idaho.
The rules affect all parts of Kootenai, Shoshone, Benewah, Bonner and Boundary counties outside city limits, said Kary Maddox, fire information officer for the Panhandle National Forests.
All of North Idaho is in a severe or moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The new rules ban all campfires and the operation of motorized vehicles off designated roads and trails. Many other activities are banned from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m., including the operation of a chainsaw.
Cheney fires
Crews continued to make progress on three Cheney-area fires.
The West Hallett Fire that started Monday north of Cheney-Spokane Road was 75% contained and 126 acres Friday, according to a news release from the Northeast Washington Interagency Type 3 Incident Management Team.
Residents in the fire perimeter were asked to be ready to evacuate if needed. Firefighters continued to make progress toward fully mopping up the fire.
The 48-acre West Anderson Fire that started Wednesday one-half mile east of Cheney and north of Anderson Road had yet to be contained Friday. Residents along Anderson Road south of Cheney-Spokane Road were asked to be set to evacuate.
Fire crews worked to enhance control lines around the fire while starting to mop up the perimeter, the release said. The cause of the fires is under investigation.
A fire that started Thursday afternoon on West Jennings and South Parker roads burned about 6 acres, the Spokane County Fire District 3 Facebook page said. Fire crews continued to put out hot spots Friday, and evacuations were lifted Thursday.
Ridge Creek fire
A fire first spotted Thursday afternoon east of Hayden Lake grew to 300 to 400 acres by the end the day.
Ten planes and 15 firefighters battled the Ridge Creek fire, which is about 3 1/2 miles east of the northern tip of Hayden Lake, said Kary Maddox, fire information officer of the Panhandle National Forests. More firefighters were expected on the ground on Friday.
Kootenai County Emergency Management issued a ‘get ready’ (Level 1) evacuation notice to some residents east and north of Hayden Lake.
When the fire first was noticed around 3 p.m., it was estimated to be between 5 and 10 acres. Although it didn’t advance much toward populated areas, officials issued the warning because of how quickly it grew despite heavy use of planes and helicopters to fight the blaze, Maddox said.
The fire, which remained between 300 and 400 acres Friday, is burning on U.S. Forest Service land.
The fire forced Hayden Creek Road to close, and Hayden Lake is shut down to boaters indefinitely to allow fire crews to access the waterway by aircraft.
“The inability to safely scoop or fill a bucket wastes valuable time but also presents navigational challenges with that many aircraft working on the lake,” Maddox said in an email.
The cause of the fire, which is 0% contained, is under investigation.
Dishman Hills fires
Firefighters extinguished five small fires at Dishman Hills Natural Area Thursday afternoon. The cause of the fires is under investigation.
Jonathan Brunt and Alayna Shulman contributed to this article.
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