The Spokane wildfire incident commander talks about his team's experience

From Spokane Public Radio, this is SPR News Today. I'm Doug Ned Vornick. This is Wednesday, August 12, 2026. Spokane officials have lifted wildfire evacuation levels and allowed people to go home. They urge people to be patient while outsiders remain working in their neighborhoods. Spokane's health officer is giving authority to federal agencies to clean up debris in the wildfire areas. Spokane's early warning system wasn't available to everyone on the big wildfire day. We'll hear about that. And the incident commander for the wildfire suppression effort talks about how his team was assigned to Spokane and about its experience here. Those stories and more coming up on SPR News Today. All Spokane County residents who were forced from their homes by the recent wildfires may now return. County authorities yesterday removed all of the evacuation orders, but they warn firefighters will remain in some neighborhoods as they evaluate properties and do some recovery work. They're joined by others, including volunteers from Samaritan's Purse, a non-profit Christian ministry. They include Stephanie Hesselink, who spoke last night at a community meeting at Shadle Park High School. We're thinking of you and we're here for you. And at some point, you will see a lot of orange shirts in your neighborhoods and coming alongside you for everything that you need regarding your personal contents in your home. Scott Grasmick from the California team leading the firefighting, acknowledge those areas will be crowded with outsiders for a while. And he urged the locals to be patient with them. As the evacuation orders have been lifted and you all come into... to see the damage in the survey and check on one another. I ask that you take time to slow down, watch your driving. These men and women are still have work to do over the next coming days. They're going to work as hard entirely and effort as they can to make sure these fires are out. Grasmick and his colleagues are scheduled to leave Spokane on Sunday morning. We'll hear a little more about that in the podcast. Spokane Regional Health Officer Francisco Velazquez has signed an emergency order to address damage from the Spokane complex of wildfires. His order authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA and the Federal Emergency Management Authority. FEMA to inspect fire damaged homes and remove dangerous materials. Crews arrived in Spokane Sunday to prepare for the removal work. Brooke Beeler is the Eastern Region Director for Washington's Department of Ecology. She says workers will look for things like paint and lithium ion batteries. We know that everyone would like to return as soon as possible, but there are leftover hazardous materials that remain in areas that were burned, and they pose real risks to people and the environment. Unless homeowners want to opt out of the federally funded removal service, they don't need to take any action. They can track the crew's progress on an EPA webpage that will be made available in the coming days. The Red Cross is setting up three staging sites again this afternoon, where people can collect their...

free personal protection kits before they enter their properties. The sites are at the corner of Wind River Drive just off of 9-mile road, the entrance of Woodside just off of 9-mile road, and the shoulder of Rifle Club Road just off of Aubrey L. White Parkway. All will be open between 2 and 6. Spokane County authorities say they will help homeowners who want to rebuild. County commissioners have voted to slash the cost of demolition permits to $33. Commissioner Josh Kearns says that's the lowest allowable under state law. He says the county will also expedite the issuing of building permits. If all the right paperwork is presented, that could reduce the weight on those permits from weeks to days. Incoming Commissioner Suzanne Schmidt says the governor's emergency proclamation for the fires may also provide help. There's a part of that declaration that's asked the state building code council to look at the permitting processes and codes and things like that so that we can expedite and help people rebuild as fast and safe. as possible. Schmidt spoke Monday night at a community meeting for the Fairview Fire. She says the Building Code Council will meet Friday to review rules and regulations that might be removed to help people quickly rebuild. The county warning system that was messaging about the recent wildfires was sometimes unclear that day for residents in rural areas. SBR Steve Jackson tells us more. The issues came about because of spotty cell service, bad internet connectivity, and the power being off. The county's notification system sends an emergency tone to phones that are known to be in areas where fires are occurring, much like the Amber Alert system. But without phone service, some residents got no notification, or if they had reduced service, they got the tone but were unable to open an attachment showing the exact evacuation info. Chandra Fox, the county's deputy director for emergency management, says part of the problem was the large number of people trying to use their phones. Cell resources were also damaged by fire and older phones may have had bad reception. Fox says in many cases, people were still able to text even if they couldn't make calls. This is why it is imperative. It is imperative that people register with the Alert Spokane system.

Because if you are registered into the system, you can specify the phone numbers that you want us to use, and you can request text messages. Fox says those texts will include the description of the evacuation perimeters. To register your phone for the emergency messages, visit alertspokane.org. There are also links that allow people in neighboring counties to register. I'm Steve Jackson reporting. Spokane County residents turned out en masse at the Board of County Commissioners meeting yesterday. They're urging the commissioners to put a year-long moratorium on the construction of any new data centers. Climate change is the major reason attendees want the moratorium, but not the only one. Some alluded to secret meetings they believe commissioners are holding to get the data centers pushed through. Commissioner Al French denied there were any secret meetings and said attendees could find his complete statement on his website. The commissioners did not have data centers on their agenda yesterday. They listened to 30 members of the audience for one minute each before cutting off public comments. And the crowd booed commissioners on their way out of the chamber. And the Spokesman Review has put its executive editor on administrative leave. Publisher Stacey Coles has released a statement saying Rob Curley is the subject of several staff complaints. Curley has been the architect of a transition that will move ownership of the paper from the Coles family to a nonprofit called comma journalism labs. Coles says several staff members involved in that are also the subject of complaints. He says the company has hired lawyers to conduct an outside investigation. says that investigation will delay the ownership transfer.

On Sunday morning, the California team that has overseen the suppression of Spokane's wildfires will head home. Local officials, such as Fire Chief Tom Williams, have praised the manner in which they've coordinated the effort. California team members have raved about the treatment they've received here. Incident commander Tom Clemo told a community meeting at Shaddle Park High School last night that it was a happy accident that his team was assigned to Spokane. We were headed to Baker City, Oregon. We arrived there on the 31st or 30th, somewhere in there. And our mission was to take over. the Fox Fire and Powder River Fire from Southwest Incident Management Team 2. There are 38 complex incident management teams in the country were one of them, Southwest 2 is another. And as I was sitting in the room with the other incident commander from Southwest 2, his phone rang, and it was a coordination center that said, hey, can you guys extend a couple of days? And he said, well, let me call you back. And then my phone rang, and the same individual said, Tom, I think we're going to send you guys to Spokane. So within 15 minutes, 127 of us had checked out of hotels, and we were northbound. And I was on the phone with a multitude of people, including Chief Williams, other agency administrators, the Operation Section Chief from the incident. And all of the members from my team were making context to counterparts in the area. And while driving northbound had quite a bit of intelligence about what was going on here in Spokane. I was looking at a map on my iPad that showed a straight B-line of the old trails fire, pull the ops map back up, of the old trails fire that indicated high winds and we were into neighborhoods. And that's what was clearly painted for us. So we actually have a guideline on how to assume command and what we call a hot handoff, and this really couldn't have been a hotter handoff. Our operations folks immediately went to the line and engaged with division supervision, branch directors, our safety officers got in the field. through the amazing coordination and generosity. We had the opportunity to get to Mount Spokane High School, and that was our command post for five days, and we operated out of there. And as you've heard from a few other people, and I kind of want to emphasize this part, that high school turned into an amazing demonstration of hope and generosity to the team. We had food trucks that showed up. We had individuals dropping off stuff all day long. We built what amounted to a general store in the lobby. And so firefighters that were out all day or out all night, because we've been running double shifts for everybody, they were able to come back, get something to eat, homemade food. I mean, I don't tell my wife, but I've been eating better here than I was going to eat at home.

She's probably watching this right now throwing something at the iPad as we speak. But amazing. And they come back, they'd go through what amounts to a Walgreens or a Walmart. They'd get everything they would need because they don't have time to do that when they're going from Fireline to Chow Line to bed. And that is something we have not seen before. Not at that level. So when we moved to the fairgrounds, and if you look at the ops map, way down in the corner, there's a little triangle, little blue triangle. When we moved to the fairgrounds, it was all set up for us, and at our peak we were at almost 2,000 people. The general store came with us, and it was tended to by a multitude of volunteers, and every night crews would come in, and every morning they'd come in after night shift. They'd pick up what they needed. They'd have a chance to call home, see how things were going, and they would tell all of us of what an amazing experience it's been in this community. It has been an honor to serve you. It has been an incident that will go down in our team's history books as probably one of the most amazing events of coordination, collaboration, and community that we've seen. If you see any of us in a black shirt with a Team 7 logo on it over the next couple of days, and you have any questions you don't feel comfortable asking in a group or you forgot about tonight, ask us, we'll do everything we can to get you the answer. And when we start heading southbound on Sunday morning early, back to California, and back to where our folks are from, We will forever remember the generosity and the gratitude of Spokane. That was Tom Clemo, the Incident Commander for California Interagency Incident Management Team 7. He's the Deputy Fire Chief for the City of Santa Monica.

SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio. Reporting today was contributed by Audrey Nelson, Steve Jackson, Lisa Lineberger, and Doug Nad Vornick, today's host and producer. Thank you for listening. This is SPR News.