Fast-moving wildfires raced through Eastern Washington over the weekend, burning homes and prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people in small rural communities.
Evacuating after Gray Fire explodes in Spokane County, began Friday afternoon and quickly exploded to 9,500 acres in size.
National Guard troops were called in to help evacuate patients and staff from Eastern State Hospital, a 367-bed psychiatric facility in Medical Lake."We had to evacuate Lakeland Village, and then we had to evacuate the evacuation point," said local resident Colette Buck. "It was pretty wild. It moved so fast too. I'm so thankful for all of the Lakeland Village staff who worked tirelessly to evacuate our residents not once, but twice.
That fire broke out near Elk at around 4 p.m. on Friday, and in only a few hours grew to some 3 square miles.The region was scorched by triple-digit temperatures last week, leaving grasslands and wheat fields ready to burn, said Joe Smillie, spokesperson for the DNR.
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