Washington state wildfire leaves at least one dead, 185 structures destroyed

A wind-driven wildfire in eastern Washington state has destroyed at least 185 structures, closed a major highway and left one person dead, authorities said Saturday.

The Gray Fire began shortly after midday Friday on the west side of Medical Lake, about 15 miles west of Spokane, and then expanded, Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Isabelle Hoygaard said.

It grew to nearly 15 square miles by Saturday morning, with zero containment. That remained the case Saturday evening. Officials didn't expect to have new size estimates until Sunday morning, she said.

The burned structures were a mix of homes and outbuildings.

Evacuations were ordered for the town as winds blew the flames southward, Hoygaard said. The evacuations were extended Saturday evening southeast to the town of Tyler, she said.

Among those evacuated were the parents of Spokane City Councilman Zack Zappone.

"They were driving into Spokane when they got alerts on their phone that there were ... evacuations at their house," Zappone told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday.

"They went back to get their dogs. My stepmom said it was a giant cloud of smoke and darkness. Embers were falling from the sky. She was having trouble breathing."

The fire swept through the neighborhood soon after they left, destroying his parents' home and his uncle's home, just two houses away. Zappone said his parents had lived there since 2003 and had just paid it off last year.

"It's shocking," Zappone said. "I'm just in disbelief."

The blaze burned through the south side of the town and then jumped Interstate 90 on Friday night, forcing its closure, Hoygaard said. The major east-west thoroughfare remained closed in both directions Saturday evening.

"The fire is burning on both sides of the highway," the Washington state Department of Transportation said on its webpage.

There was one confirmed fatality associated with the fire, Hoygaard said. Further details were not immediately released.

Staff, patients and residents at Eastern State Hospital, one of the state's two psychiatric facilities, and those living at the Lakeland Village Residential Habilitation Center, both in Medical Lake, were sheltering in place Saturday, said Norah West, a spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services.

Evacuees from the town were given shelter at a high school overnight.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

"My thoughts are with the ... residents who have been ordered to evacuate as the Gray Fire grows," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on social media. "I'm also praying for the safety of the first responders working to contain the fire. May you all remain safe and out of harm's way."

There were also hundreds of wildfires burning in Western Canada Saturday. In British Columbia, about 30,000 people were evacuated and the entire province was placed under a state of emergency.

An approaching complex of wildfires also forced the evacuation of about 20,000 people in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada's Northwest Territories.

As of Saturday evening, there were 384 active wildfires burning in British Columbia, and another 236 burning in the Northern Territories.

Canada is contending with the worst wildfire season in its history. So far this year, Canada has recorded 5,793 wildfires that have burned more than 53,000 square miles, according to numbers from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. In June, smoke from the wildfires caused air quality levels across the U.S. to plummet. 

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