The week before the fires, it felt like the entire city knew how dangerous that Saturday could be. The National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” warning, alerting residents that high winds and high heat could make any spark turn catastrophic.
I spoke with the Spokane Fire Department spokesperson just a day before the fire, and I still think about it now. He told me, “Saturday is going to be bad.”
I told my editors I would be on call. I woke up late, around 11 a.m. that Saturday. I went out to grab a coffee and for whatever reason, felt off. I got back in my car and turned on my scanner. Right on cue, the dispatcher was talking about a fire near Airway Heights. She broadcast that the firefighters on the ground needed air resources.
I was tracking the fire for the five-minute drive home. I raced into my house, threw on the yellow fire shirt and green pants I had crumpled on my floor from a previous fire, and I left.
I got to the intersection of Old Trails and Euclid roads, the area where the fire started, around 12:30 p.m. The fire was already 50 acres. I watched the smoke plume from near the train tracks. I saw people running from the fire down Old Trails, firefighters surrounding the streets and residents on the roofs of their homes, but I remember trying to comfort myself by thinking, “They’ll catch that.”
