Seattle

2100 readers

41 users here now

A community for news and discussion of Seattle, Washington and the surrounding area

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

steelrat@lemmy.world

Washington state wildfires force 60,000 people to evacuate homes (www.bbc.com)

submitted 9 hours ago by velma@sh.itjust.works to c/seattle@lemmy.world

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/64492843

There's 3 fires burning around 7,000 acres and they are completely uncontained currently.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown described the situation as "the worst natural disaster our region has faced", adding that authorities were assessing the extent of the damage and were "still discussing the potential for lives to be lost".

No deaths or injuries have been confirmed.

The fires in Spokane are among a total number more than a dozen wildfires in the state including 10 large ones, according to the dashboard on the state's department of natural resources.

The National Weather Service (NWS) had warned of "extremely critical" fire weather over the weekend, with strong winds and unusually dry conditions helping the flames spread rapidly.

Scientists have said that human-induced climate change makes the warm, dry conditions that lead to wildfires more likely - as well as leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves, and potential summer droughts.

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

My mom's friend apparently closed on a house on Friday and on Saturday it burned down.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

That's absolutely heartbreaking. I can't even imagine being in that position.

[–] Tujio@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

We knew that it would be a bad wildfire season. Winter was way too dry, snowpacks disappeared to early.