Thousands Forced to Evacuate as Homes Go Up in Flames

About 60,000 people have been evacuated in eastern Washington state in response to wildfires tearing through the Spokane area. At least 600 homes, businesses, and other structures have been destroyed in and around the state’s second-largest city, filling the sky with smoke and haze. So far, nobody has been reported injured or unaccounted for, but officials warned it was still early in the response effort. Among the evacuees were patients at the U.S. Veterans Affairs hospital in Spokane. As of Monday, the fires were 0 percent contained, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Firefighters hoped that cooler temperatures and lighter winds on Monday would help them get a handle on the blazes. Investigators have not yet determined how they started. About 525 square miles of grassland were also burning in western Idaho and eastern Oregon, while in central Utah, a massive blaze more than doubled in size over the weekend, reaching 57 square miles. The National Weather Service has issued air quality warnings across the Northwest.

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