Thank you for joining us here on
KREM 2 News at 10:00 tonight.
I'm Whitney Ward. Welcome
everyone. I'm Mark Andre Ham.
We want to bring you the very lt
on breaking news at this hour ae
continue to track three major wildfires
burning across our region tonig.
Those fires have so far claimed one life,
burned several structures and he
forced thousands to evacuate.
We want to first turn to the Gray Fire,
which is burning just southwest of Spokane.
It has left at least one person dead.
And right now Medical Lake and
the community of Four Lakes have
both been evacuated completely.
They remain under Level 3 Go
Now evacuations at this time, so
take a look at your screen right now.
These are the current areas
under those evacuations.
And within the last hour we have
learned that Cheney remains at a
level 1 evacuation Order readin.
Be ready to go.
We are now headed out live to Creme twos.
Kyle Simchuk, who is still in Medical
Lake tonight near the fire line
tracking the latest conditions for us
and Kyle. What are you seeing there now
as the sunset just a couple of hours ago?
Well, Mark and Whitney,
it is completely dark out here.
Most of the town is without pow,
but we're at the Conoco gas sta.
It is still standing as are
just basically all of the homes
to the north of Medical Lake.
But it's when you start heading South is when
you start to see some of that destruction.
And I want to show you this vid.
It is heartbreaking.
It is hard to look at,
but just in the last hour we drove through
the area of Stanley and Evergre.
We saw several homes there just smoldering
all that's really left of them.
Concrete, driveways and their foundation,
twisted metal.
We saw bed frames, hot water,
tanks, chairs, just all smolder.
And we didn't stay too long bece
there were things exploding.
I imagine some propane tanks let
out on decks, that sort of thin,
But it seems that everyone in tt
area that we were at evacuated.
But again,
it's hard to tell because the power is out.
You can't tell if someone is ho,
has a porch light on, things like that.
But we did see some people driving through,
I imagine just to see if their
homes were still there or to chk
on their neighbors homes.
And that is really the question
that everyone is asking right n.
And it's unfortunate because wey
not have those answers until tomorrow.
We may not fully understand this
total destruction until tomorrow
when the sun rises and things st
to hopefully settle down here.
But we know that this fire is at least
3000 acres. That's what it's bu.
And we did confirm with the Sheriff's Office,
as you mentioned in the top
of the show around 8:00.
They did confirm that at least
one person has been killed.
They didn't say obviously exactly who.
They're not identifying that pen
or saying where the body was fo,
but only that it was in this evacuation zone.
Mark and Whitney,
Kyle, thank you very much.
When the Gray fire took off,
officials quickly designated Chy
High School as an evacuation ce.
But as the flames continued
to push toward town,
they decided that high school
was still too close for comfort.
Yeah. Late this evening,
they made the call to evacuate
that evacuation center and move
all of those people, this time o
Spokane Falls Community College.
KREM 2's Amanda Rowley has more
now on why they made that decis.
By late this afternoon,
about 100 people checked in here at this
evacuation center at Cheney High School.
But as the evacuation levels
increased here in the Cheney ar,
the American Red Cross decided o
relocate everyone here and set p
shop with a new evacuation centt
the Spokane Falls Community Col.
In this shadow of the widespread smoke
coming from Medical Lake wildfi,
evacuees made their way to safey
here at Cheney High School.
A young man evacuated his
grandmother from Medical Lake.
They only had time to grab her medication
cat and the clothes on her back.
This Medical Lake family is takg
their first deep breath here afr
narrowly escaping the wildfire
that raced toward their home.
And you could hear things behind
us just blowing up.
Sandy Hastings is also counting
her blessings.
She and her husband evacuated
from their home,
hoping they returned to it soon.
But when they arrived at Cheney High School,
they got an alert from their security camera.
The camera is mounted on
the home of Sandy's father.
That's their RV parked next doo.
Her heart sunk when she saw the flames
inch closer and closer to her h.
I don't know where we are.
You know, if it's burned down,
if if our RV is gone because
of all the notices saying that
everything's not working,
the flames come up and the
video stops abruptly.
I think it burned up
just hours later.
The Red Cross decided to relocate the
center to get further from harm's way.
We don't want to open an evacuan
center or a shelter and a locatn
that would be at a level 2 evacuation.
Evacuees filled about a dozen
buses and left for their next
moment to take a deep breath as
this wildfire situation develop.
The Red Cross told me that they
are in close communication with
Spokane County Emergency Managet
and they are relaying any updats
they can to the evacuees,
regularly reporting in Cheney.
Amanda Rowley, CREM 2 News
Well, in times of crisis,
the Red Cross responds with the
uncertainty of the fire pattern again.
The Red Cross moved the shelter
from Cheney High School to
Spokane Falls Community College.
Spokane Transit then quickly mobilized
to help transport those evacuee,
most of whom fled their homes with just a
few of their most important belongings.
Many of the evacuees have pets as well,
so the nonprofits are also
working to support those needs.
The Red Cross is trained to res,
but watching people struggle
has been emotional.
There's a lot of people in there that
you can tell this wasn't what ty
were expecting to have happen t.
They've got their pets with the.
They're looking to make sure
that they're safe,
as well as not knowing what's going to
happen to their houses at their homes.
Red Cross says it will help shelter people
while they're at their most vulnerable.
Again, the shelter was originalt
Cheney High School but was forco
move when the fire became errat.
Fire and law enforcement agencis
from all across the county then poured
into Medical Lake. This evening.
The Spokane County Sheriff's Ofe
helicopter, Air 1, flew into acn
to help get people out of dange.
Those Air One crews were actualy
helping evacuate people who were
trapped by the flames in Medical
Lake just a few hours ago.
They also shared some pretty remarkable
images of the fire from above,
and these fires are forcing
major roads to close as well.
And that includes I-90.
Yeah, right now it is closed inh
directions at US 2 from 4 legs,
which means you can't take the
exit to the airport and is closd
all the way to Tyler State.
Route 904 is also partially clo,
so take a look at this map from
Wash dot showing the closures.
State Route 904 is closed from t
outside of Cheney up to four la.
A detour is in place from
State Route 904 on to Cheney,
Spokane Road and then to US195.
And these conditions are quickly changing.
There could be even more Rd.
closures tonight and tomorrow,
so we'll make sure to bring you
updates just as soon as we have them.
Well, fueling these fires today.
Wind gusts near 40 mph.
Want to check in now?
A chief meteorologist Jeremy the Goo.
Jeremy, how are conditions
impacting the fires spread? Wel,
things have changed dramatically
here in just the last few hours.
As you can see,
it looks pretty dramatic on rad,
but what we're getting are a few things.
Stick with me here so I can show you.
Ready. First, this is our
gust front out of the north.
Did you see that line moving frm
the top of your screen to the bottom?
That is our wind shifting
from westerly to northerly.
That shift coincided with
a drop in the wind speed.
As our wind speed dropped,
we pulled in more wildfire smok.
That wildfire smoke is coming
from fires burning up in Canada.
But look at the smoke from
the Medical Lake fire,
the Gray fire burning in Medical Lake.
You can see it turn and now
blow directly to the South.
It's a similar story up near El,
where we have the organ fire burning.
That fire is also starting to see some
calmer winds light and variable up there.
That's kind of how they stay
through the rest of the night.
Negligible in terms of wind gus.
So basically down at 5:00
or below mph overnight,
things are going to remain relatively calm.
But overall,
our weather pattern favors A northerly wind.
What that's doing is blowing all
the smoke from our N into Spokae
and much of the Inland Northwes.
That's your line from,
say, 3:00 this afternoon.
There's the Gray fire in Medical Lake,
and then there's the smoke creeping in.
That smoke has taken over and
it's dropping our air quality.
Air quality currently sits
at unhealthy or a 162.
Tomorrow it likely gets worse.
We're pulling in more of that se
from our neighbors off to the n.
It does look like tomorrow aften
will be a little bit cleaner than today.
And it does look like eventualle
get rain returning to the forec.
That doesn't look to happen until Monday.
It is going to be hazy,
but much calmer over the weeken.
All
right, Jeremy, thank you very m.
We'll check back in with
you later in the broadcast.
The Organ Fire near Mount
Spokane continues to grow.
It as so far burned more
than 2500 acres and is still
spreading out of control. Yeah,
at this hour. We have just leard
that state mobilization was
authorized for that fire today,
which means additional
resources are now on the way.
We're told at least 30 homes are
currently threatened, as well as timber,
power, infrastructure and crops.
There are several Level 3 Go Now
evacuations in place from the Spokane
County line at least to Blanchard Rd.
We have also just learned that l
of the areas that were at a Lev2
have now been upgraded to Level.
Again, that means go right now.
And Riverside High School is the
evacuation site for people who
are needing a place to go that's
located at 4120 E Deer Park,
Mylan Road.
Residents with large animals
can be taken to the Newport
Rodeo grounds if needed.
According to the Ponder,
a County Sheriff's Office.
Spokane Fire District 4 is curry
responding and urges residents
to monitor their phones tonight
and the third fire we are tracking tonight.
Residents of Winona in Whitman County,
they will not be able to go home tonight.
Evacuation orders will stay in place there
overnight after a wildfire came through town.
The fire is not contained and
has so far burned 3000 acres,
fire crews tell us while
it came dangerously close,
no occupied homes in town
burned many outbuildings and
unoccupied houses were lost.
The fire is now laying down
over the night, they said.
Whitman County emergency manages
say the crews will be continuing
to stay on it overnight.
The winds and rugged terrain
made it very difficult,
though, to fight.
It was incredibly fast moving,
you know, with the wind and
it was so erratic, you know,
and blowing One Direction and
turn around and just blow right
back at you. So yeah, the wind
wasn't our friend today. State
mobilization crews are due
in to help in the morning.
The cause of that fire is
also under investigation.