Scale of devastation shocks US city's fire-seasoned residents

Last year, Chris Matthews was forced to flee with his family of five after a brushfire threatened their home in Spokane, Washington.

That evacuation lasted only a few hours. So when an ominous column of dark smoke raced towards him last Saturday, and he and his family were evacuated again, he expected he'd be back home soon.

Instead, he returned to find nothing but smouldering ruins.

"All of us thought we were going to be able to get back to our houses," he recalls. "And we didn't think it'd be a situation where we were going to lose our homes or anything like that."

Smoke and fires are a normal occurrence here in the US Pacific Northwest every summer, as residents wait for the autumn rains to arrive. Small evacuations are not unexpected. But the scale of this year's fires in Spokane is unprecedented.

Kira Townsend, 39, says she realised the immense danger when word came that the fire had jumped over the river, which normally acts as a barrier protecting the city from fires.

"It's never jumped the river like that, and just roared up the hill that fast," she says.

Nearly a quarter of the city population – 65,000 people – were forced to evacuate since the fires began. For those whose homes did not burn down, officials say it may be weeks before it is safe to return to their neighbourhoods.

Miraculously, there have been no deaths or major injuries reported from the fires.

Matthew Kincanon, 31, fled for his life as the fire entered his neighbourhood of Prosperity Lane on Saturday night. He returned 12 hours later to discover that there was nothing left.

"As soon as I stepped out of the car I threw up," he says. "I felt sick. I couldn't control it. I just lost it. It hit me all at once," he says.

While firefighters battle three large fires around the city that remain less than 40% contained, the recovery effort is beginning for people who have lost everything.

"We have two fronts going at the same time. We're actively fighting the fire and trying to put that out. But we're also starting recovering for folks that have lost their homes," City Councilman Zack Zappone, who grew up in the devastated Indian Trails neighbourhood, tells the BBC.

"There just a lot of uncertainty and frustrations and difficultness," he says at a city shelter, describing the tensions in the city.

Chrissy Goodrich's voice cracks in anger as she calls on people to do everything they can to prevent more wildfires. She echoes warnings from officials, who say that innocent activities like mowing your lawn could ignite a fire.

"People have got to use their brains," she says.

"Stop doing things that are gonna cause sparks. I can't believe someone was mowing."

"So many people have lost their houses, and people are just being so stupid," she adds.

She and her 73-year-old father, Scott Hansen still ride their mountain bikes through burned-out neighbourhoods to get groceries back to home, which is in the mandatory evacuation zone.

Like many Spokane residents, he expressed surprise at how easily the fire breached the river.

"The winds were too strong," he says. "It just blew over the river like it wasn't even there."

Anger has intensified since police charged a local man, who has allegedly confessed to sparking one of the fires.

"I was so happy they got him. It's just not right," says lifelong resident Susan Crouch, 70, who previously lost her home to wildfire.

The fires this summer, she adds, "are the worst Spokane has ever had".

Local media reported that he had previously been questioned for arson, and had a prior conviction for killing his own father in Arizona in 2010.

The suspect, Aaron Farinacci, 37, has not yet entered a plea, and a judge has ordered him to undergo a mental competency evaluation.

According to investigators, he specifically chose a dry, windy day, in the hopes of sparking a large fire. More dry windy days are in the forecast.

Matthews, who lost his house, is now urging his neighbours to prepare for the worst. In retrospect, he says he wishes he had a generator that he could have used to power a sprinkler system around the property after the electricity went out.

"For future reference, and for everyone else – take it seriously. Don't assume past historical times are what's going to happen in the future as well."

His wife, Melissa Matthews, says she feels a sense of "closure" to discover that the blaze that destroyed her home may have been set intentionally by a man who is now accused of arson.

"It brought a little bit of closure," she says, adding: "That sounds weird to say."

Chris adds: "Knowing that a person did this, as opposed to it being a natural thing that happened, it just does feel a little bit comforting for some reason."

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