Eastern Washington fires have burned 600 structures and forced the evacuation of 5,000 homes

Wildfires in eastern Washington state have destroyed more than 600 homes and businesses and forced the evacuation of about 5,000 homes. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.

The fires have burned more than 8.2 square miles (about 21 square kilometers) around Spokane, the second-largest city in Washington, and are among dozens across the western U.S., stretching the ability of federal, state and local agencies to fight them. No deaths have yet been reported from the fires in the Spokane area.

Meanwhile, crews using bulldozers and helicopters continued for the 10th day to fight a fire that has burned nearly 525 square miles (about 1,360 square kilometers) of grassland in western Idaho and eastern Oregon. The area is home to cattle ranches, and authorities said the fire is threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures.

The weather in the area was expected to remain sunny and dry well into the week, with temperatures rising to more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday. Officials say the fire was caused by lightning.

The National Weather Service issued warnings about the air quality in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, western and central Idaho and western Montana. It issued red flag fire warnings for parts of Utah and Montana and western Nebraska, and extreme heat warnings for the southern parts of Arizona, California and Nevada and northern Montana.

While the high temperature Sunday in Spokane was forecast to remain below 80 F (27 C), wind gusts from 35 mph (56 kph) to 45 mph (72 kph) were expected later in the day, said Benjamin Cossel, public information officer for the federal response team from California called in Saturday night to deal with the Spokane-area fires.

“We have weather working against us, and we have terrain working against us,” Cossel said.

There were three fires in the Spokane area, the Old Trails Fire, the Fairview Fire and the Meadowview Fire, and the state issued air quality warnings. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson declared a state of emergency.