SPOKANE, Wash. — With the first red flag warning of the year being issued for most of Sunday, Spokane County Fire District 3 added more staff to some fire stations to more rapidly address any fires that occurred.
The combination of high winds, high temperatures, and low humidity creates a greater risk of fires starting or spreading rapidly.
“What can happen with the high temperatures and low humidity? You see very, very dry fuels that makes the fire start potential significantly greater, and then for those existing fires on the landscape when you factor in the wind, you really do have these creating a perfect recipe for wildfires,” Rodruck said.
Bill Dennstaedt is the Deputy Chief with Spokane County Fire District 3 and said with a higher risk of fires, it’s important to have valuables together and ready to take with you in an evacuation.
“Having those valuables in a one-point location that you can grab your kids can grab them, jump in the car, and take off,” Deputy Chief Dennstaedt said.
Spokane County Fire District 3 also increased its dispatching level to high today, allowing more resources to be called to a scene and a faster response to a potential fire.
The winds and humidity can accelerate the spread of these fires, but Rodruck said preventing a fire from starting is what helps firefighting crews the most in these conditions.
“The more folks can do to exercise caution and respect those burn bans, the better off we’re going to be,” Rodruck said.
And even when some indications are that there is not much fire danger, conditions can change quickly.
You can go to the Spokane County evacuation zone lookup and search your address to see if you are under an evacuation level.
