AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In Spokane, Washington, cooler temperatures and calmer winds are letting firefighters make some progress as they battle three blazes that have burned hundreds of homes. Authorities arrested a man suspected of arson for the most destructive fire. That's the Old Trails fire. NPR's Kirk Siegler spent some time in neighborhoods that were burned by that fire today and joins us now from Spokane. Hi, Kirk.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Hello, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so last I saw, something like 65,000 people have been evacuated from these fires, and I'm sure so many of them want to get back into their homes. Have officials, like, started letting people back into the burn zones yet?
SIEGLER: Yes, on a very limited case-by-case basis and not for much time - I mean, there's no power or water in the burned areas. Today, I was out by Riverside State Park here in Spokane near where the fire jumped the Spokane River and blew into the city. And I was able to walk in past this police checkpoint with a group of residents that are anxious, as you say. We walked down a hill about a mile. We walked by a fire crew putting out hot spots. One guy had a chainsaw. I (inaudible) take you there right now. Let's play a little bit of tape from this scene.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHAINSAW REVVING)
SIEGLER: Walking with us is Christy O'Donnell, who confirmed as of this morning, based on a photo on a Facebook neighborhood group, that her house is still standing.
CHRISTY O’DONNELL: So we thought maybe it would be safe enough to walk in and just check. We have no plans on staying. There's no power.
SIEGLER: She and her husband had been having an ordinary weekend day when things went south so fast as the smell of smoke, which is not unusual this time of year, then quickly turned into a big plume on the horizon, and then the sky went black. She showed me a screenshot on her phone of the dire evacuation alert she got.
O’DONNELL: I snapped a picture when it - I'd never seen imminent threat beep on my phone before. I remember thinking, well, this is awful 'cause we could see fire as we're...
SIEGLER: Leaving.
O’DONNELL: As we're leaving.
CHANG: God, that must have been so scary. What did that neighborhood look like now?
SIEGLER: Well, Ailsa, I mean, honestly, just as the governor of Washington and other leaders here have been describing - a war zone. I mean, I saw flattened homes, skeletons of burnt cars, twisted metal, rubble everywhere. And then, like, a lot or two down, you know, you'd see a totally unscathed property where the wind must have, I assume, just sent the fire the other direction at the last minute...
CHANG: Yeah.
SIEGLER: ...Or there just wasn't brush to catch it right there. There was a particularly grim scene in front of a dementia care center that's still standing, and I just saw abandoned wheelchairs out in front of it, a couple turned over on their sides. I am told everyone got out of that facility safe, though.
CHANG: Oh, good, good, good. I mean, yeah, that's right because despite the level of destruction, physical destruction, authorities are saying that no one has died in the fires so far, right? Which seems pretty surprising.
SIEGLER: Yeah. So, I mean, there is a prevailing sense here, I'd say, that, you know, this could have been worse, at least so far. I mean, you compare it to destructive and deadly wildfires I've covered in places like Los Angeles, Paradise, California, on Maui in Hawaii, I mean, the fact that it appears that everyone got out is pretty remarkable, just how dangerous these things are. And, you know, Ailsa, you're talking about evacuating whole parts of a city. This is the world we live in with these urban wildfires made worse by climate change. It can turn into a logistical nightmare. You've got fire engines coming in against all the traffic. Spokane Sheriff John Nowels told us this week that he thinks that's a big part of the story - that some 65,000 people evacuated generally in an orderly way in a few hours. And today the sheriff said all the remaining dozen or so people they were still trying to account for have been tracked down and are safe.
CHANG: That is NPR's Kirk Siegler reporting from Spokane, Washington. Thank you so much, Kirk.
SIEGLER: You're welcome, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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