Rapidly spreading wildfires in and around Spokane, Washington state's second-largest city, have destroyed at least 600 homes, businesses and other structures and forced the evacuation of roughly 60,000 people, authorities announced on Sunday. Three separate fires — the Old Trails Fire, the Fairview Fire and the Meadowview Fire — together burned more than 21 square kilometres (8 square miles) within the city and its surroundings, while remaining at zero percent contained. No deaths or injuries had been reported as of Sunday, though officials cautioned that ongoing investigations in an active fire zone could change that picture.

The fires spread with alarming speed, driven by wind gusts of up to 72 kilometres per hour (45 mph) funnelled through Spokane's steep riverside canyons. The Old Trails Fire jumped the Spokane River on Saturday afternoon and pushed directly into the city of roughly 229,000 people, triggering the highest-level evacuation alert — "Go Now" — across large swathes of northern Spokane. Footage showed entire neighbourhoods reduced to ash, with only chimneys and foundations left standing, while some adjacent homes were left almost untouched. Residents described chaotic scenes of bumper-to-bumper traffic as people fled with pets and whatever belongings they could grab. Emergency authorities established an evacuation shelter at the Spokane Convention Center.

The Spokane fires are part of a far wider crisis across the western United States. Across Washington state alone, roughly 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) have burned, with the head of the state's Department of Natural Resources warning that Spokane is just one of 15 major fires currently burning statewide. Elsewhere, crews have spent ten days battling a blaze that has consumed nearly 1,360 square kilometres (525 square miles) of cattle-ranch grassland straddling western Idaho and eastern Oregon, threatening more than 600 homes and 800 other structures. In central Utah, a separate fire more than doubled in size over the weekend, killing over 100 cattle.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson, who declared a state of emergency, attributed the severity of the season in part to the state's fourth consecutive year of drought, linking the worsening conditions to climate change. The National Weather Service had flagged "extremely critical fire weather conditions" before the blazes erupted, and forecasters warned that warm, dry weather is expected to persist into the coming week, with temperatures forecast to exceed 32°C (90°F) by Wednesday in affected areas. "We are not out of danger," Senator Maria Cantwell said at a joint press conference in Spokane. "The next couple of days will be challenging."

Federal response teams from California were deployed overnight Saturday to assist overstretched state and local agencies. Officials have not yet determined the cause of the Spokane-area fires, while the Idaho-Oregon blaze has been attributed to lightning. The convergence of fires across the West is severely straining resources. "This is an extraordinary wildfire season in the Pacific Northwest — it's not a normal season," said David Upthegrove, head of Washington's Department of Natural Resources. "A confluence of weather conditions and fires throughout the West are stretching our resources and challenging the individuals in this response."