Families return home to assess damage after evacuation orders lifted

SPOKANE — Thousands of families are settling back into their homes after many evacuation orders were lifted Sunday afternoon, marking the end of a nine-day displacement.

For some evacuees, the return home brought mixed emotions. Melissa Hammel and her son Luca discovered their barn destroyed, though their house remained standing—a narrow escape from the flames that threatened their property.

“Keep getting reminded of what I once had, and in seconds it was just gone,” Hammel said.

Melissa and Luca were on a trip for most of the evacuation. Along with their barn, they lost all nine of their chickens and one duck.

“We loved our chickens. They weren’t just chickens — they were our pets,” Hammel said.

Despite the losses, she expressed gratitude that her home survived the evacuation period and placed signs in her front yard thanking firefighters for their efforts.

The cleanup process, however, looms large for Hammel and many other returning residents.

“It’s a lot. It’s a disaster back there,” she said.

Yet Hammel remains focused on moving forward.

“We do have to face it. And that’s in order to recover and heal — you know, we gotta do the cleanup process,” she said.

Down the street, Tom Westerman spent part of the morning washing ash and dirt off his cars. After nine days away, Westerman acknowledged the evacuation orders were frustrating, though he understood the safety concerns that prompted them.

“It’s a dose of reality. We sure feel blessed that our house is OK and our neighborhood’s OK, but we have a little survivor’s guilt that the people down the hill and our fellow citizens took the brunt of it for us,” Westerman said.

Westerman was also thankful he was able to stay with family during the evacuation.

“We really felt sorry for the people that had to go evacuate to the conference center or out of town to a hotel — or even just a local hotel — or didn’t have any place to go,” he said.

For Hammel and Luca, there was a bright spot in their return: one of their ducks somehow survived the fire. They’ve named her “Lucky Duck.”