Due to a rapidly approaching wildfire, officials in Medical Lake, Washington, ordered the evacuation of the entire town on Friday.
Fueled by strong 35 mph winds, the Gray Fire expanded from around 500 acres to nearly 3,000 acres within just a few hours on Friday afternoon. By 5 p.m., it had already reached properties within the city limits. Medical Lake is a small town with around 5,000 people, situated about 12 miles to the southwest of Spokane.
Joe Smillie, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, reported, "We know that some homes have burned. We don't know how many. This blew up really big, really fast. It's been really hot the last week."
The fire crossed Interstate 90 after 5 p.m., causing closures in both directions and prompting the evacuation of Four Lakes, a small town of around 500 residents. Another major road, State Route 902, was also shut down in both directions near Medical Lake.
Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels stated that his agency had not received reports of injuries or fatalities in Medical Lake. Deputies were going door-to-door inside the evacuation zone, urging people to leave their homes.
Nowels mentioned that the fire was "zero percent" contained and advancing into more densely populated areas, including neighborhoods and near a school. More than 100 police officers rushed to the scene of the fires.
"We've had to rescue people by boat and by helicopter," Nowels said. "If you're in an evacuation area, leave. Some people didn't want to go and are still here. Fire then overtakes where they're at and they need to be rescued."
In the afternoon, twenty people from the Washington Air National Guard helped move patients and staff from Eastern State Hospital because there was a fire, but they didn't know why it happened yet.
The agency suggested that people should go to a high school in the nearby town of Cheney to stay safe. By Friday evening, Cheney was placed under a level-one evacuation notice, which means officials were advising people to be prepared to leave. Plans were being made for evacuees in case the fire continued to approach Cheney.
On Friday afternoon, two other fires ignited in different parts of Washington state. Both fires, in Douglas and Whitman counties, had grown to about 5,000 acres by 5 p.m., according to Smillie.
Much of inland Washington state was under a red flag warning on Friday, as the National Weather Service warned of warm, dry winds continuing through the afternoon, creating critical fire conditions.
