As of last night, the Yale Road Fire near Spangle, south of Spokane, tore through multiple homes Sunday and grew to 2,500 acres in size.
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Several other fires in Central California have burned tens of thousands of acres of brush and prompted evacuations of campgrounds and recreation areas. The suspect is at-large. No injuries were reported, the State Patrol said.
Cooler weather has slowed Montana’s largest wildfire, though 45 homes are still evacuated and 130 more are on alert. Firefighters will be focused on providing structure protection and establishing containment lines around the fire today.
Spokane fire officials say the blaze is not under control.
Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency for 20 Washington state counties in response to wildfires that threaten homes and natural resources.
According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, the fire started about 8 miles north of Davenport, Wash., and traveled northeast, jumping the Spokane River into Stevens County. Residents in the area of Elder Road and Valley Chapel Road are under a level 3 evacuation order.
Cayuse Mountain fire – At least eight homes were destroyed since the fire sparked on Sunday.
Together the three blazes scorched almost seven square miles of terrain and sent plumes of smoke billowing over the region.
A plane drops a load of fire retardant on the north side of Beacon Hill, Sunday, Aug 21, 2016, in Spokane, Wash. It’s 60 percent contained. As many as 100 homes and structures were within a half-mile of the fire’s perimeter.
The fires have prompted evacuation after burning more than 25 structures and threatening hundreds more.
“They’re doing everything they can to stop the fire on the reservation”, he said.
In neighboring Yellowstone, a fire burning near the West Entrance Road grew bigger Monday and a new team of fire managers was being brought in to help, although the fire was not being actively suppressed yet.
The blaze has burned about 35 square miles of a mostly remote forest. The fire is burning north of Spangle near Valleyford and evacuations are in place.
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Due to the smoke and haze caused by the fires, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality issued an Air Quality Forecast and Caution to notify residents of Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai, Benewah and Shoshone counties of degraded air quality. Forecasters were expecting afternoon wind gusts of 25 miles per hour.
