Emergency declared as residents flee fast-moving wildfires in Spokane County, Washington

Dmitriy Gorelov spotted the first sign of smoke pluming from a hill across the river, the same view his family looks at every day from their home in Spokane County. At first, he said, it didn’t seem serious.

But then the wind picked up.

“It’s a real strong wind starting up, and it was so quick – fires cover our area,” he told CNN affiliate KREM.

By around noon, his phone was buzzing. Three or four evacuation alerts arrived in quick succession, he said, until the order was to leave immediately. Then police knocked on his door.

“They just said, ‘Yeah, you need to leave,’” Gorelov said. “So that was the last time we were in the house.”

Gorelov, his wife and their two children plan to spend the night with relatives in Spokane. “We pray for our city, for our firefighters, everything,” he said.

Fire crews in Spokane remained in an aggressive fight against three rapidly spreading wildfires Saturday evening, with officials warning that conditions are not expected to improve at night.

In an evening update, the Spokane County Fire District 9 department said winds continue to maintain and “fire activity may remain significant.”

At 8 p.m. local time, the Old Trails Fire was more than 2,000 acres, the fire department said, making it the largest of the three active fires.

The Fairview Fire was estimated at about 979 acres and remains a fast-moving threat, according to firefighters.

Meanwhile, the size of the Meadowview Fire was estimated to be 500 acres.

Officials urged residents to refer to Spokane County Emergency Management and local emergency authorities for evacuation information.

The blaze in Spokane County is unfolding during a wildfire year that so far has been historically destructive across the United States.

As of late spring, nearly 30,000 fires had ignited across the country – the highest number in almost two decades for that time of year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 2 million acres had burned, the center said – that’s twice the previous 10-year average for the period, and the highest loss in 14 years.

The destruction has stretched far beyond the West Coast. In March, Nebraska’s Morrill Fire tore through 642,000 acres to become the largest in state history, killing one person and razing vast stretches of cattle country. Weeks later in Georgia, the Highway 82 Fire destroyed more than 120 homes – the most lost to a single fire since state records began in the 1950s – while blazes across the Southeast pushed smoke into communities that rarely see it.

Researchers and fire officials point to a familiar set of drivers: a warming climate compounding drought; low snowpack; and dry, windy conditions that let fires ignite and spread with alarming speed.

That trend has produced some of the most destructive fires on record in recent years – including the Eaton and Palisades fires that tore through Los Angeles County in January 2025, killing dozens and destroying thousands of homes in some of the costliest blazes in California history.

CNN’s Kasha Patel and Chris Dolce contributed to this report.

The Washington National Guard said it would send units to Spokane County to help with evacuation and traffic control on Sunday.

“The Washington National Guard is making 30 members available tonight to Spokane authorities for any emerging needs,” it said in a Facebook post late Saturday.

“We’re also pulling together a general purpose manpower pool that can be made immediately available to local authorities as additional requirements emerge over the coming days.”

A fast-moving wildfire in Spokane County, Washington, has forced residents to evacuate their homes as crews worked to quell the blaze Saturday.

The highest level of evacuation order, Level 3, was issued for several areas in the Spokane area due to the Old Trails Fire, local emergency management officials said, urging residents to “leave now due to the life-threatening conditions.” An evacuation shelter was opened at a community college for residents fleeing their homes.

The full extent of the damage is not yet clear, but officials said the fire is impacting structures. Just after midnight on Sunday morning, the Old Trails fire has already burned over 3,000 acres and is threatening up to 5,000 structures, Washington Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Jessica Walston told CNN.

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson implemented a statewide state of emergency and burn ban Saturday morning as the National Weather Service issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation Red Flag Warning across Central and Eastern Washington – a rare designation reserved for the most severe fire weather conditions.

The fire started around noon Saturday. State firefighters were mobilized around 1:30 p.m., according to a news release from the Washington State Fire Marshal. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The wildfire is growing as Washington is in the middle of its fourth consecutive statewide drought, according to the governor’s office. More than 1,000 fires have burned about 425,000 acres so far this year — the most burned since 2021, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

CNN’s Hanna Park contributed to this report.

Firefighters are battling 10 large fires across that Washington State with more than 425,000 acres of land already burned this year, a state official said Saturday.

“This is a difficult moment for our state,” said Dave Upthegrove, Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, likening the burned land area to “roughly half the size of Rhode Island.”

He said an Australian team has joined the Washington National Guard and crew from 14 states to help fight the fires.

Thousands of residents were plunged into darkness by power outages Saturday night as a wildfire swept through Spokane County, Washington.

Almost 13,400 customers were affected at 11pm local time, according to a live map from US energy company Avista Utilities, which reported 25 active outages.

Internet activity was also disrupted, according to monitoring group NetBlocks.

This was corresponding to “evacuations and emergency power shutdowns in areas affected by the Old Trails Fire,” it said Saturday on X.