EASTERN WASHINGTON WILDFIRES DESTROY 600 STRUCTURES, FORCE 60,000 TO EVACUATE

Wildfires in and around Spokane, Washington's second largest city, forced the evacuation of 60,000 people and destroyed at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures, authorities said on Sunday. The fires burned about 21 square kilometres across the weekend. Fire officials and police reported no injuries or people unaccounted for, though they stressed the response effort remained in its early stages. Evacuees included patients at the Spokane US Veterans Affairs hospital.

The blazes formed part of dozens of wildfires across the western United States that have stretched the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. Across Washington state, approximately 1,000 square kilometres have burned, with some fires in the Spokane area remaining uncontained. A separate fire in western Idaho and eastern Oregon has burned nearly 1,360 square kilometres of grassland and is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures; officials attributed that fire to lightning. Weather forecasts predicted dry conditions to persist across the region into the coming week, with temperatures expected to exceed 32 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.

Maria Cantwell, US Senator for Washington, warned during a news conference with federal, state and local officials that the danger had not passed. "The next couple of days will be challenging," Cantwell said. The National Weather Service issued air quality warnings for eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, western and central Idaho and western Montana. Investigators had yet to determine how the Spokane-area blazes started.