Jennifer Gray Thompson counsels wildfire-affected communities

From Spokane Public Radio, it's SBR News Today. I'm Doug Nad Vornick. This is Monday, August 10th, 2026. Spokane Wildfire evacuees are headed home, many of them anyway, but public health authorities say they will need to do some evaluation and cleanup of their properties before they move back in. The Resource Center that was opened last week to provide help to wildfire evacuees will stay open a few more days. Crews responding to wildfires that broke out over the weekend in the Palouse are making progress in controlling them. And in our feature segment, we talk with the head of an organization that works with wildfire affected communities like Spokane to rebuild. Those stories and more coming up on SPR News Today. Spokane authorities are allowing many wildfire evacuees to return home. New boundaries released Sunday afternoon change areas that have been in level three or go now to level one or be ready. Some areas remain in level three. Tom Clemo says teams in hazmat suits will spend the next few days doing final cleanup work in the remaining level three evacuation zones. Clemo is the incident commander for the California team in charge of battling the fires. Every one of these residential homes pose a significant threat to the community, not just because of the heat, but because of the materials that were burned in everyday modern homes. Clemo is asking the public to stay out of the areas where the teams are working. As for the people allowed to return, Health District Medical Officer Frank Velasquez is warning people to take it slow. We want all residents as they return to take the time to carefully examine all the environment around them before they proceed. For homes that are standing and have no obvious fire damage, you still have to think about smoke, ash. damage utilities, and other hazards before settling back in. The Red Cross is handing out free personal protection equipment kits, says Denise Everhart from the Red Cross. Those kits will have Tyvex suits, N95 masks, eye protection, eyedrops, booties to put on your feet so you don't bring the toxic ash back into your car, a tub so that you can put your belongings in the tub and seal it up for later cleaning. They're available. Those kits are at the Disaster Assistance Center at Shaddle Park High School. The health district has a list of returning home after a wildfire to-dos at its website, sr-h-d.org. And the Red Cross is opening eight stations where people who are returning home can first stop and get that personal equipment. That's especially important if your house sustained fire and smoke damage. Here's the list of places you can get at Meade High School, the Rosars in 9-mile 5. Falls Union Stadium in Meade, the Indian Trail Shopping Center, the River Ridge Shopping Center, across the street from the VA Hospital, the Rosars at the 5-mile shopping center, the 5-mile park and ride, and the nom-nom-nom on West 9-mile road.

When people go back to their homes after being away for several days, they'll find a vista has restored the power. The next step is turning on the natural gas. Chief Executive Heather Rosentrader hopes that work will be done in the next two or three days. We'll have resources in the area, just knocking on the door systematically going through the neighborhoods multiple times. So you don't need to worry. If you're not there, we'll still be there in the future. You don't need to rush home to make sure that you don't miss us. Rosen Trader warns people not to resale. start their own gas service for safety reasons. The Resource Center that has served Spokane wildfire evacuees for the last four days will remain open, at least through Wednesday. The facility that was stood up at Shaddle Park High School has seen thousands of visitors. Some made their way to a row of trailers and tents manned by insurance company claims representatives. Others went inside to talk with people from government agencies and social service organizations. Some accepted food outside for themselves and their pets. Rochelle Munger from the Shadle Park Boost was coordinating an area where people drove up with donations of clothes and other things. We are now offering for people to come in and take what is needed, no questions asked. So even if you may not have been impacted by the fires, we're all one community and we want to make sure that your needs are taken care of as well. The Spokane Business Association delivered clothes for professional people who haven't been able to go home and get work-appropriate attire. The hours for the Resource Center will be nine to six. Also at Shaddle's Spokane Public Schools will operate its emergency drop-in camp for children four and older. Those hours are 11 to 3 and lunch will be provided. Crews are making progress on the two fires burning in the Palluse in eastern Washington. Officials say the Palluse River fire burning in grass and timber near Colfax has now charred a little more than 600 acres. A level three or go-now evacuation has been downgraded to level two or be ready. That fire is considered 40% contained. To the northwest, the Wells Road fires now estimated to be about 2,000 acres, but in the mop-up phase. That fire threatened the town of Mulden this weekend, but the evacuation level has been reduced to a level two and a level one for nearby Rosalia. Idaho Governor Brad Little came to Cortalane on Friday to talk about wildfires. Above everything right now, for Idaho, I want to express our... incredible thoughts and sympathy for the people of the Spokane area, the families, the businesses, everyone that's been dislocated. It's just heartbreaking what's taken place over there. Little talked with reporters at the Cordillane Interagency Firecash. He says agencies in Idaho are working closely together on wildfires and could use some help from the public. Preventing the next wildfire.

maybe the single greatest way people can help support the firefighters who are already working nonstop. Human cause wildfires are preventable. If there are fire restrictions in your area, follow them. Also at the meeting was U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, who said the number of reported fires this year nationwide is at 127% of the 10-year average. It's been a little more than a week since the 2026 Spokane firestorm ignited. The suppression work continues, but the recovery has also begun. Jennifer Gray Thompson knows what that's about. In 2017, her house in northern California was threatened by a megafire and she had to evacuate for 10 days. She was inspired to help others in similar situations. So she created an organization called After the Fires USA that goes to fire ravaged communities to help them recover. We recently talked with her. When someone invites you to Spokane and you decide or any community, what are the first things that you start to teach a community? So the first thing we want them to know is they will get through it. And so I look at the community in front of me and then I design a delegation of people who've been through it. I try to do a variety from the public sector, city managers or county directors, public works, that kind of thing. Emergency management, I have a huge roster of the best roster in the nation on experienced community leaders. What I do is that I will bring a delegation of about eight to 11 people. We will come and we will listen. And we want to hear, like, what's the love language of the community? What do they care about the most? What are they most sad about losing? And that informs our response a lot. I know that sounds like woo-woo, but it is actually what people need at the first touch of it. They need to know, like, what happens next? And we explain things like debris removal. I have an insurance expert on my team. And people have, you know, what, how many renters do you have? Looks like you have about 35, 33 to 35 percent renters from the zip codes that are affected. How do you deal with, you know, mobile home parks? I think you have a mobile home park that was also burned. Can we get financial advisors for? You know, how do we even navigate this disaster? So we have all of those experts and we bring them. We then sit in community and they can ask us anything and we will answer them. The most important thing we do is establish hope and relationships so that people know that they're not alone and that we do have the expertise to back the community and anything they may need. Then we start to deliver webinars. whatever they're asking for. One of the things that's really hard about disaster is as soon as you get one phase of it down, you've moved on to the next phase. That can be really tough. It's a little bit like new parenthood where you're like, oh, I finally understand how to take care of this baby, and then the baby changes its entire schedule. It's not that different. And then the language, too. There's a ton of acronyms.

And there are processes to navigate that are rather opaque. You know, navigating individual systems with FEMA is tough. SBA comes in and you're like, oh, SBA, I thought they were just for businesses. And it turns out that they do a lot of work with individuals who need low interest loans, but they also have to qualify for those loans. And so there are just a lot of surprises and not always good ones around the corner. We're also dealing with a very different federal landscape for a disaster than we've had previously. This has been a huge challenge in the Los Angeles recovery. And so we want to start to talk to the local leaders from the public sector and what to expect. And it doesn't mean we have all of the answers, but we definitely walk alongside of them. They always have somebody to call and pick up is a ton of peer-to-peer support. I think you made an allusion to this earlier, but how long do you stay with a project like this? So you say you establish a relationship with a community. How long do you keep working with them? Well, you know, we still have a relationship with Paradise, and they are almost eight years in. My community is, I will be nine years in, in October. We still respond to requests when it's needed here. We're pretty much past all of that, but sometimes we get new disasters like in Lake and Mendocino for more fires. So we will stay with them until they are all the way home. And the other thing is, is that... In our model, when we bring people, we bring people who are brand new to it. Maybe they have a year, year and a half under their belt of disaster leadership. And then all the way to, you know, the people like from my fires who are nine years ago, because you want that entire span of understanding. And we don't want people who are, again, like, wizened in any way, shape, or form. You have to remember, it has to be fresh what it feels like and what the challenges are because it's easy to forget. It's kind of like a fog of war. And so I've already had Lahaina or Maui County leaders reach out and offer their assistance to Spokane. People like to come in with us because we are very organized, but they also, they like the respect with which we enter a community. So we stay as long as they need us, which sometimes it's a light touch, but we never actually go away. They can call us at any time. Jennifer Gray Thompson is the chief executive of After the Fires USA. You can hear more of our conversation in our most recent Inland Journal at Spokane Public Radio.org. SBR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio. Reporting today was contributed by Lisa Lineberger and me, Doug Nad Vornick, today's host and producer. Thank you for joining us. This is SBR News.