Firefighters Finally Got Containment Lines Around All Three Spokane Fires. The Forecast for the Weekend Is Upper 90s and Wind.

Crews fighting the three wildfires that have gutted neighborhoods around Washington's second-largest city used two days of cooler weather to do something they had not managed since the fires started: draw containment lines all the way around every perimeter. Officials confirmed Wednesday that lines now encircle the Old Trails, Autumn Lane and Fairview fires, and that the priority has shifted to reinforcing them.

They have very little time. Temperatures that sat in the 80s for two days were forecast to climb into the upper 90s by late this week, with humidity dropping and winds picking up. Fire lines that hold in mild conditions routinely fail under those numbers.

The fires have destroyed roughly 850 buildings and forced about 67,000 people from their homes since they broke out last weekend. Damage assessment teams still have not finished counting how many of the destroyed structures were houses. No deaths have been reported.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels told reporters Wednesday that nobody should expect to go home soon. "We are not going to be downgrading these zones in any large way for many, many more days to come," he said. "If we let people back in and we don't have a high degree of certainty the fire lines will hold, we will put people in danger."

Investigators say the Old Trails Fire was deliberately set. Aaron F. Farinacci, 37, of Spokane, was arrested after a resident reported seeing him in the area where the fire started and was charged with arson; he denied setting it when deputies questioned him and was expected to be arraigned Thursday. Court documents show authorities had contacted him during two fire investigations last year, including one in a state park that triggered evacuation notices, though he was not charged in either. The Autumn Lane and Fairview fires started independently of Old Trails and were also human-caused, investigators said, though not necessarily on purpose. Both remain under investigation.

Evacuees are scattered across a shelter at the Spokane convention center, hotels, rentals and relatives' spare rooms. Debra Curran has been at the convention center since Saturday with her husband, who has ALS. Their house survived, but he would have to be moved by ambulance, and officials will not authorize that until the fire risk in their neighborhood drops. "We figured it would be a day or two, not four or five," she said. "It's not the best situation."

Among those evacuated were 27 patients from the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, moved to local hospitals and temporary shelters when flames approached Saturday, according to center spokesperson Bret Bowers. The building itself did not burn. Several staff members lost their homes.

Statewide, the picture is worse than Spokane alone. Washington has 16 uncontained wildfires burning across more than 672 square miles, fought by upward of 7,000 personnel, said Thomas Kyle-Milward of the state Department of Natural Resources. "We're looking down the barrel at one of the worst fire seasons in state history," he said.

Sen. Maria Cantwell said Wednesday that senators had been briefed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Wildland Fire Service Director Brian Fennessy, who promised that keeping crews and aircraft in the Northwest remains the national priority. "We are still at the highest risk in the nation and appreciate being the highest resourced," Cantwell said.