CHENEY, Wash. — Eastern Washington is blanketed by smoke, the sun blocked by haze as hundreds of fire crews work to knock down the area’s largest fire.
The Gray Fire located outside Spokane in the Medical Lake area has destroyed at least 185 homes and burned more than 10,000 acres.
“When we seen the truck and the flames, we pretty much thought we were going to lose everything,” said Ryan Hann, who was evacuated over the weekend.
Leeann Eginton, his longtime partner, shot cell phone video from Interstate 90 of the large plum of smoke over their neighborhood as they evacuated. Eginton and Hann were able to outrun the Gray fire and thought they were in the clear.
“Yeah, but not safe from the criminals in Spokane I guess,” Hann said.
On Monday morning, the couple woke up to find broken glass under the pickup outside a Spokane hotel. A bad situation just got worse.
“I woke up at six in the morning to come down here and get a charger for my phone and as I’m walking up I seen glass from underneath the truck and I knew the truck got broken into and when we got closer we realized everything was gone,” Hann said.
The good news, their home is still standing. At least 185 others are not and officials expect that number to rise.
The fire sparked Friday and in that time has consumed more than 10,000 acres and took one life. Over the weekend Gov. Jay Inslee visited survivors promising more help is on the way.
“We’ve got to understand that we are up against a monster here that we’ve never felt before and that’s climate change,” Inslee told KING 5 from a shelter in Chattaroy.
Back near Medical Lake, crews were taking advantage of slightly lower temperatures and calmer conditions to solidify fire lines. WSDOT crews were clearing trees at risk of falling as they work to clear the interstate before they opened it back up to traffic.
To date, just 10% of the fire is contained. For Hann and Eginton that means they’ll have to keep waiting – often the hardest part – something they wish the people who broke into their truck could understand.
“Did it ever cross your guy’s mind that other people other than you are going through something too,” Eginton said.
Crews fighting the Gray fire are hopeful mother nature will provide some relief. There is a probability of a light rain early Monday evening and while it’s not much, it could help slow the growth.