deliberately set<\/a> by a man who was arrested and charged with arson \u2014 have destroyed about 850 buildings and forced the evacuation of around 67,000 people since they erupted last weekend. Damage assessment crews have yet to tally exactly how many houses have been lost or damaged. No deaths have been reported.<\/p>\nThe other two fires were also started by people, though not necessarily deliberately, investigators have said. They remain under investigation. Those fires, the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, started independently of the arson-caused Old Trails Fire, they said.<\/p>\n
Some evacuees were allowed to return home, but officials did not immediately say how many. Others remained in a shelter set up in a Spokane convention center, at hotels or rentals, or at the homes of friends or relatives, with no idea of how soon they might go back \u2014 if they have a house to return to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe figured it would be a day or two, not four or five. It\u2019s not the best situation,\u201d said Debra Curran, who has been staying at the convention center since Saturday with her husband, who has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Their house survived, but her husband would need to be transported by ambulance, which officials won’t do until the fire risk in their neighborhood drops.<\/p>\n
Among those under evacuation orders are patients and staff from the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane. When the fire approached on Saturday, the staff moved 27 patients to local hospitals and temporary shelters, said Bret Bower, a spokesperson for the center. The medical center was not burned in the fire but several staff lost their homes.<\/p>\n
Adam Wilson, a communications officer at the Washington State Auditor’s Office, fled Saturday with his wife and three children, ages 9, 14 and 16. They had moved into their Spokane home a little over a month earlier and were still unpacking, he said.<\/p>\n
Since then, they’ve stayed at a hotel 90 minutes to the south and with his father in Idaho. This weekend, they’ll move again, to a rental home in Spokane that their insurance is covering.<\/p>\n
Their house is fine, Wilson said, despite flames that leveled an entire cul-de-sac just two blocks away, leaving only chimneys standing in some cases. The neighborhood remains under an evacuation order. Even if they could return, there’s no power and no internet service, and no information about how soon either will be restored.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you really want to hear, nobody can tell you,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt is oddly emotional and disorienting. We did not lose any property. From the outside it looks like a family trip \u2014 \u2018Hey, kids, we\u2019re going to go visit Papa for a week, pack your bags.’ … And yet you feel like something isn’t right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fires were among dozens across the Western U.S. that have stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. In Washington, there are 16 uncontained wildfires burning more than 672 square miles (1,740 square km) and being fought by more than 7,000 fire personnel, said Thomas Kyle-Milward, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Natural Resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking down the barrel at one of the worst fire seasons in state history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington said Wednesday that senators had received a briefing from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Wildland Fire Service Director Brian Fennessy, who assured them that keeping firefighting assets, including ground crews and aircraft, in the Northwest is a priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still at the highest risk in the nation and appreciate being the highest resourced,\u201d Cantwell said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
The man charged with starting the Old Trails Fire, Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, of Spokane, was expected to be arraigned Thursday. According to court documents, he was arrested after a resident reported him being in the area where the fire began. He denied having started it when questioned by deputies.<\/p>\n
Authorities said they previously contacted him during two fire investigations last year, including one in a state park that prompted evacuation notices, though he wasn\u2019t charged in either.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Johnson and Bellisle reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Ed White contributed from Detroit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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