Arson suspect arrested as three fires continue burning in Washington state
Spokane-area residents described their evacuations from three wildfires that swept through the region over the weekend, destroying hundreds of buildings and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes with little warning.
Amy Mulligan was in her backyard preparing to host a five-year-old’s birthday party when she noticed the faint smell of smoke. Living in Spokane, an area prone to wildfires, she was not initially alarmed. She spotted black smoke in the distance but checked her phone alerts and found nothing. “I guess they must have it contained,” she thought.
Minutes later, her brother-in-law arrived with the news that a nearby neighbourhood was being evacuated. When Mulligan looked outside again, the smoke was “coming up over the backside of our house.” She, her husband and their two children grabbed a few belongings and drove off.
In traffic, their nine-year-old daughter began to hyperventilate. “She was starting to hyperventilate and crying, saying, ‘The fire’s right there! The fire’s right there,’” Mulligan recalled. “We were just like trying to do breathing exercises with her in the car as we were driving out because she was having a really hard time.”
James Main, 67, and his wife were also among those forced to flee. “We had no warning, by the way, zero warning,” Main said. “Normally, things would come on your phone and say, ‘Hey, this area, you know, you’ve got fire, level three fire, or anything. There was zero warning for this whole deal.’”
Main said he had only 30 minutes between first seeing the fire and realising the situation was dire. “I kind of froze up for just a few minutes. I think it was like an anxiety attack,” he said. “I’ve never had one before, but I think I had one then.”
Main and his wife made it to their truck but had to navigate streets shrouded in thick smoke. “We don’t know if we’re heading out of a fire or into a fire because we can’t freaking see,” he recalled.
When Main returned the following day, he found little left of his house beyond ash, rubble and charred tree trunks rising from smouldering ground. Asked what comes next, he responded: “We don’t know.”
The Old Trails fire, which engulfed Mulligan’s home, was the largest of the three wildfires. A suspect has been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with that blaze. All three fires were still burning as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Washington state’s wildfire tracker.
Mulligan returned to find her home reduced to ash. But it was not the structure itself that brought her to tears. It was a ring her grandmother had given her — a ring Mulligan’s grandfather had given her grandmother on their 49th wedding anniversary. He had died before reaching their 50th. “She had always said she thought that he knew, and that’s why he went ahead and got her this ring,” Mulligan said. “And it’s gone.”