As a survivor of 3 fire evacuations in the past 8 years, I understand. When the evacuation order comes, you go and you go quickly, and hopefully by that time you’ve already gathered your pets into pet carriers and loaded all your most important papers and treasures into your car or whatever. So then all you have to do is load the pets, lock the house and leave.
The photos and videos coming out of the Spokane area right now look like visits to Hell. This is a massive fire driven by high winds across a city packed with coniferous trees that burn like kerosene torches.
The only way this fire will stop is when it runs out of fuel or the wind stops, and the wind won’t stop as long as the fire burns because it creates it’s own wind. There’s too many trees and too much wind.
In another week people will be returning to pick through the ashes of what used to be their homes, hoping to find some forgotten, treasured object or anything to salvage, just to feel that they haven’t suffered a total loss. Most won’t have fire insurance, because it’s very expensive and most carriers won’t insure in high fire danger areas anyway.
Spokane is an historic port city, when the Alaska gold rush started in the 1800’s, Spokane was the starting point where the treasure seekers gathered, to learn as much as they could of conditions in the far North and to finish stocking up on supplies and gear before heading north. This fire is burning down a city that matters.
Lots of wildfires in UK too, no rain for over a month here, and temperatures of 32′ or more. Still, at least we haven’t yet had it as bad as some other countries in Europe, especially France, Spain and Greece.