SPOKANE — More than 65,000 people evacuated their homes Saturday as a wildfire swept through the Spokane and Stevens County region. Some have returned to find nothing left. Others don’t know when they’ll be allowed back.
Evacuees are staying with friends and family, in hotels or at emergency shelters set up around the area. The Spokane Convention Center is serving as the primary shelter for the Old Trails Fire.
Dedra and Jim Sadler are grateful their home survived, but they’re staying at a hotel near the evacuation center with no clear end date. They’re glad to have a place to stay, but worried costs will add up.
“I am worried about whether — if this thing does run into days or especially weeks — what we will do about that,” Jim Sadler said. “Because, the meter’s running.”
The Red Cross reported 500 people are staying at the Spokane Convention Center shelter. That’s 100 more than the day before.
Carlos Morales works at Bethel House Adult Family Home and has residents staying at the shelter. He is concerned about people at the shelter who have health problems.
“If there’s any CNAs or anybody, please come in and help at night, cause people are hurting,” Morales said. “I had to pick somebody up off the ground last night, and they were trouble. And it wasn’t my person, and it was just awful. So they need help out here.”
Finding a hotel room is becoming difficult. The Madison Inn was fully booked through the weekend and tonight.
“Kind of as all the weekend business was finishing up and leaving and departing, that’s when the real need — it seemed like — came on in Spokane,” said Dan Zimmerer, president of Ruby Hospitality. “Not just locals and people from the community, but our staff and employees were effected a lot as well.”
At the convention center shelter, some families are trying to make the most of their situation. Ten-year-old Avery Kyser found a bright spot.
“I actually like it here,” Kyser said. “Yeah, it’s fun. I have one of my friends from the YMCA North camp is here.”
The Red Cross shelter remains open for those displaced by the wildfire.
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