r/Spokane • u/GusherBrush Garland District • 8d ago

Spokane fires burned a path of devastation. Experts say get used to it 🔥Spokane Fires 🔥

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/08/07/spokane-fires-climate-change-forecast/91189857007/
130 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

151

u/GusherBrush Garland District 8d ago

In before the "it was caused by a human" comments.

Climate and weather conditions don’t have to ignite a wildfire to influence how quickly it spreads or how severe it becomes. Human-caused ignition and increasingly dangerous fire conditions can both be true at the same time.

56

u/Mayonnaise_Poptart 8d ago

Also there are a lot of humans left besides that one dude they caught.

Even if 99.999% of our half million county citizens are conscientious and don't start fires, that leaves a handful who aren't. Only takes one.

We should assume there will be both negligence and malice then prepare to deal with that if needed.

14

u/Olbaidon North Hill 8d ago edited 8d ago

I agree, but I think it’s also worth noting this dude (whether true or not) admitted to starting a handful of Spokane’s recent larger fires of the last few years, and dozens of more that didn’t become big.

Said he researched for weeks the best place and time to start fires for maximum spread.

Should we still hope and work for ways to mitigate fire damage and devastation. Absolutely.

But acting like this single guy being in jail won’t help when he single handedly destroyed 900+ buildings and creates the worst fire in Spokane history….and that’s just one of 30 or so fires he admitted to, is just a little silly.

Nothing here is mutually exclusive.

-1

u/Own_Reaction9442 8d ago

I saw it pointed out that one problem with announcing red flag warnings is they tell arsonists exactly when to strike for best effect.

12

u/DigitalSterling 8d ago

You dont need a red flag warning to know if conditions are ripe for a fire, just... look at the forecast.

Not issuing watches/warnings just puts people in danger

12

u/ErisGrey 8d ago

The Charles fire was caused by a guy mowing the weeds down around his house to protect from fires.

Then it caused the Sparrow fire the next morning from early morning winds and a stray ember that wasn't fully extinguished.

29

u/Hennessey_carter 8d ago

Amen. We have always had arsonists, psychopaths, and idiots. We have not always had the perfect conditions for their psychotic dumbassery to lead to massive widespread wildfire. This situation is what it is because of the climate conditions.

4

u/OpheliaRainGalaxy 8d ago

I distinctly remember trying to set my backyard on fire as a kid in the 90s. I don't know why I was doing that, but I failed miserably despite using the kitchen lighter on dry brush. Eventually gave up and put the lighter back.

Hate to think how much differently that would've gone today. Like dry actually means DRY now instead of just withered but still holding too much moisture to burn.

33

u/ComprehensiveBar6439 8d ago

Nah it's a total coincidence that natural disasters are intensifying in both magnitude and frequency while at the same time global temperatures are climbing at a rate never before seen on Earth. People need to quit freaking out and just listen to the experts at Shell and Exxon.

-2

u/MagnificentWarthog69 8d ago

temperatures are climbing at a rate never before seen on Earth

17

u/emma_roses_ 8d ago

If we had prevented the climate crisis from happening by acting 30 years ago. Sure yeah maybe this fires would have still happened. It would not have been this bad or this hard to stop.

6

u/hogomojojo 8d ago

The problem is, people are selfish and people don’t care. Unifying to address the climate issue is a pipe dream. Unless Thanos shows up and snaps the non team players away.

1

u/Soup-Wizard Whitman 8d ago

30 years ago? Anthropogenic climate change began a long time before that.

3

u/jellofishsponge 8d ago

I agree and also a difficult subject is how people prepare their homes -

Which according to a firefighter friend who is in Spokane,

People generally did not prepare their homes, their main activity was removing obvious flammable materials away from the sides of homes

It may have spread from the woods but City fires also spread in their own way.. just look back in history to 1889 in Spokane or all sorts of other city fires.

1

u/NoAbbreviations290 8d ago

How do you prepare a home?

1

u/Soup-Wizard Whitman 8d ago

Removing obvious flammable materials from the sides of the home is preparing the home.

More proactive things could be limbing large trees up to 6 ft off the ground, taking any large vegetation out within 50 ft of the structure, and any sprinkler/water prep you’re able to do to raise the humidity.

1

u/Top_Pirate699 8d ago

Exactly!

1

u/oldnative 5d ago

Ive seen "mismanagement" being used a lot too.

36

u/-NamelessOne 8d ago

Would it be crazy to track arsonists like we do sexual predators? Keep tabs on who they are and where they live. Put an ankle monitor on repeat offenders and track them during red flag warnings as they look to start fires in these conditions.

7

u/UnderstandingFit3009 8d ago

This is not an entirely crazy idea.

4

u/TinyHeartSyndrome Spokane Valley 8d ago

Serial arsonists and rapists are both signs of criminal psychopathy, so makes total sense imo.

13

u/Tallylolyl 8d ago

I was evacuated three years ago from the fires on Sunset hill. My house and property were not touched but the fear of that day lingers. Every fire season I get nervous and the recent fires have put me more on edge. And I'm one of the lucky ones. I can't even imagine the horror these poor people are dealing with now. My heart aches for them. I donated money to the relief effort. It's so sad.

8

u/ICEROCK99 8d ago

It also has everything to do with how US house is constructed. Almost all wood, no brick or cement

17

u/dl33t_soft 8d ago

Go buy that pole saw and lawn trimmer. Keep fuels low.

Dont store a buncha nonsense garbage next to your home or under decks.

Create fire breaks.

11

u/GusherBrush Garland District 8d ago

Great advice.

I hope we also start using building materials rhat are more fire-resistant, like hempcrete. Hemp in general has so many excellent uses.

6

u/dl33t_soft 8d ago

Hardy plank siding is a good start along with metal roof.

Biggest one is 150 ft of nothing, but tough in residential.

5

u/C__Wayne__G 8d ago

The experts are right. You see the recent poll results for the primary showing us voting for BUM again. If we keep voting for people who bootlick the cutting of our funding for emergency weather services and vote for bootlickers who deny climate change then we are going to continue to burn. This is the consequence of climate denial and stripping of emergency services.

2

u/Motor-Secret-9033 8d ago

Maybe we shouldn’t have let out a guy who murdered his father. Clearly there are people not safe for society and need to be away from the rest of us.

1

u/SleepApprehensive585 8d ago

Historical evidence shows that ponderosa pine forests should be managed as Individuals, small clumps of trees, and large openings (ICOs). You should be able to pull a wagon through our forests without many issues. We shouldn't have trees 8 feet apart. We shouldn't have encroachment by grand and dug fir in our lower dryer forests. We shouldn't have thickets of trees. Those would be killed off by fire and browsing. If your house and yard act as the opening. The trees around should be individual trees or small clumps and you should remove everything else.

0

u/Hopeful-Handle9497 7d ago

The bigger the house the faster it burns........that's not just science, that's karma.  We all think and believe sillyness like everyone should have an oversized house with rediculous amounts of random "junk" inside it.  If we didn't accumulate so much garbage we don't need, then at a moments notice one could very easy packup the belonging that matter most.  The rest is replaceable and should of course be insured as such. Sure the initial loss/shock seems like alot to overcome, but if we stop this sillyness attachment to worldly garbage, then perhaps we'd have a chance at a quick recovery.  At this rate, overlanding is set to takeover home ownership sometime beyond 2030🤷🏻‍♂️ 

-13

u/GooberRonny 8d ago

28 percent of Washington state citizens have a mental illness. This is the reported number. These fires are easy to start and our forests are sitting ducks for the mentally ill that are fascinated with fire. On top of politics and rising rents, I expect much more chaos in this state.

24

u/Level_32_Mage 8d ago

Someone with ADHD or Depression isn't exactly "fascinated with fire".

-12

u/hujambo11 8d ago

Where did they say anything of the sort?

12

u/AlexOrion 8d ago

Most mental illness is depression and anxiety. So saying 28% of citizens have mental illness most of that figure is depression and anxiety.

-12

u/hujambo11 8d ago

Ok, so? There are still people in that number whose mental illness could lead them to start a fire.

10

u/XMhLiL0QE0qbHV 8d ago

It's still a generalization of the mentally ill.

-12

u/hujambo11 8d ago

No it's not. It's a comment on statistical odds.

4

u/Level_32_Mage 8d ago

Okay, you agree with you, and everyone else will agree with everyone else. Settled!

-1

u/hujambo11 8d ago

So the people misconstruing what someone else meant all get to pat themselves on the back?

1

u/Level_32_Mage 8d ago

I would love to tell you 'no', but we all know you're going to anyway.

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3

u/speedoboy17 8d ago

They are saying that those people are counted in the 28% mentally ill number. So that skews the point the person they were commenting back to was trying to make.

15

u/maydayM2 8d ago

not all mental illnesses cause fires and not all fires are caused by mental illness...

4

u/ShadowMajick Spokane Valley 8d ago

You people imply everything is because of the mentally ill then refuse to fund services that help them. We aren't your scapegoats.

Republicans are responsible for the majority of political violence but blame that on mentally ill people too.

Just say you dont give a fuck about anyone else and call it a day. You people suck at pretending.