Washington
Upriver Fire Near Spokane Triggers Evacuations For 12,000 Residents Amid Critical Fire Conditions
Washington state is currently experiencing an early-season flare-up of wildfire activity, particularly in the southeastern and central parts of the state, as well as the Upriver Fire, a fast-moving incident East of Spokane.
A combination of an ongoing statewide drought emergency and critical fire weather—including a strong, dry cold front with high wind gusts—has caused several fires to grow rapidly over the last few days.
The most significant other current active blazes include:
Omak Lake Road Fire: Things are moving fast up there right now. As of this afternoon (Wednesday, June 17), the Omak Lake Road Fire has officially merged with the nearby Kartar Fire, creating a massive blaze that has already burned roughly 6,500 acres on Colville Reservation land.
Tule Fire (Yakima Region): Ignited on June 14 south of Toppenish, this is currently the largest wildfire in the state, having ballooned to approximately 20,665 acres with 0% containment. It is burning primarily in dry grass and brush and has been producing a massive smoke plume that is impacting air quality throughout the Columbia River Gorge.
Juniper Dunes Fire (Franklin County): This fire has burned over 10,577 acres and is 10% contained. It has pushed into the challenging, roadless terrain of the Juniper Dunes Wilderness area, making ground access difficult for crews.
A Red Flag Warning remains in effect across much of Eastern Washington due to sustained high winds and low relative humidity, meaning any ongoing fires face an extreme risk of rapid spread, and new starts can ignite easily.
Is smoke from around the state forecasted to arrive in NCW?
Right now, North Central Washington is in the clear. The active wildfire smoke is staying well away from the Wenatchee Valley and surrounding areas, and local air quality remains firmly in the “Good” category.
The main reason for this breaks down to wind direction and fire locations:
Westerly Winds are Our Friend: Strong winds blowing from the west across the Cascades are actively dispersing air over NCW and pushing regional smoke eastward.
Where the Smoke is Heading Instead:
South: Earlier this week, massive plumes from the Tule Fire down in Yakima drifted west/southwest into the Columbia River Gorge and Portland-Vancouver metro.
East: With the current wind shift, smoke from the large fires in the Columbia Basin (like Tule and Juniper Dunes) is now being carried east toward the Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, and the Palouse.
North/Northeast: Up north, the Kartar and Omak Lake fires east of Omak are causing localized downwind smoke impacts, but the smoke is drifting east toward Nespelem and the Coulee Dam rather than dropping south into Chelan or Douglas counties.
Because these breezy, dry conditions are expected to persist through the rest of the week, weather and air quality officials note that intermittent smoke impacts will mostly be a concern for communities situated directly downwind (east) of the active blazes.
Where can I look online to see where wildfire smoke is coming from?
A few years ago, I discovered a Canadian website that not only shows you where wildfire smoke is coming from, but also how the smoke forecast will affect you in the coming days. It comes from the BC Wildfire Service.
Click on this helpful wildfire smoke map and bookmark it.
A couple of things to know about this BC Wildfire Service website.
1) When you first find the smoke map, select the Smoke Forecast button.
The map will come to life, showing where current wind conditions are directing wildfire smoke and where it is forecast to travel in the coming days.
2) Since it’s a service of the BC Wildfire Service, it doesn’t provide any information on fires here in the US, but it does show where smoke is forecast to come from any wildfires north and south of the border.
Where can I find updated information about wildfires in Washington?
The Watch Duty app for any device.
The Washington DNR fire dashboard is active throughout the fire season and shows up-to-date information on wildfires affecting Washington state.
View a full-screen version of the DNR fire dashboard with this link.
Oregon Coast Getaway Photos
Oregon Coast Getaway Photos
Gallery Credit: KEVIN MILLER
LOOK: These Photos Show Why ’70s Cars Were Something Special (and Obviously Better)
Big, bold, and built different — these ’70s cars looked and felt like nothing on the road today. Take a ride back and see them in their prime. [And we did our best to identify the models and dates, so if we got it wrong, gearheads, don’t come after us!]
Gallery Credit: Stephen Lenz
Washington
Eastern Washington wildfire forces evacuations and destroys homes
SPOKANE, Wash. — High winds drove a wildfire into a Spokane neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of about 1,200 people and potentially damaging or destroying up to 15 structures, according to fire officials.
The Upriver Fire started at 12:17 p.m. Tuesday near Upriver Drive in northeast Spokane, said Fire District 9 spokesman Robert Gray.
“It moved rapidly up the hill and once it reach the top the wind shifted and it went right into the Northwoods neighborhood,” Gray said. Fire crews from Washington state and Idaho attacked the fire from the ground and air, but it quickly grew to 225 acres (.35 square miles) in an area called Beacon Hill.
The blaze was 10 percent contained by Wednesday morning, according to a report by the National Interagency Fire Center. The wind had died down overnight, but the fire was still burning on the ground, so there was potential to expand on Wednesday, said Isabelle Hoygaard, a spokesperson with the Washington state Department of Natural Resources.
Washington
Black bear injures teen hiker in Washington state mountain area
A black bear injured a teenage boy hiking in a mountainous recreation area outside Seattle on Tuesday, officials said, prompting a closure of the trail where it happened.
The boy was scratched when the bear charged and “swiped” at him in the early afternoon about 2.7 miles up Mount Si Trail, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
He was one of three people hiking together along the trail in the the Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area, the department said in a statement.
“His injuries were very minor, but he was of course terrified,” King County Sheriff’s Office deputy Peter Linde told NBC affiliate KING of Seattle. “The bear tossed him around a little bit, but nothing serious. He’s on his way to the hospital right now to be checked out, get the wounds clean, and maybe get some antibiotics.”
King County Search and Rescue crews responded alongside the department’s own officers and transported the teen to a hospital for treatment, the fish and wildlife department said.
A separate group of hikers had another black bear encounter Tuesday when the animal followed them closely for “several miles,” the department said.
No other injuries were reported.
Fish and wildlife officials ultimately closed the Mount Si Trail so officers could search for the bear, it said.
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources said other nearby trails, including the Little Si and Mount Teneriffe trails and trailheads, have been closed “until further notice due to bear activity.”
“Please stay out of the area,” it said.
The state has recorded one death from a black bear encounter, in 1974. Twenty encounters have resulted in injury since 1970, the latest before Tuesday’s incident taking place in 2022, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area, a scenic state landmark composed of four mountain peaks, is about 35 miles east-southeast of Seattle.
Washington
Suspect in deadly shooting of National Guard troops pleads not guilty to new charges
A man accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House, killing one of them, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges in a new indictment that make him eligible for a possible death sentence if he is convicted.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was arraigned on 17 counts, including first-degree murder, in the new indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Washington. Lakanwal originally pleaded not guilty in January to nine charges in the November 2025 shooting that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.
Before the Justice Department announces whether it will seek the death penalty against Lakanwal, his defense attorneys can meet with prosecutors and present any evidence that they believe weighs against a death sentence.
Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24, were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for the federal law-enforcement surge that began in August in Washington, D.C., at the direction of President Donald Trump.
Lakanwal is accused of driving to the nation’s capital from Bellingham, Washington, while in possession of a stolen firearm and ambushing the two Guard members outside a subway station three blocks from the White House.
Another National Guard member heard gunshots and saw Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground as Lakanwal fired a gun and screamed, “Allahu Akbar!” according to a police report.
Lakanwal, who was shot during the confrontation, was seated in a wheelchair during his arraignment on Tuesday. He didn’t speak during the hearing; one of his attorneys entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Lakanwal worked with the American government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force” in Kandahar, Afghanistan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said.
Lakanwal is due back in court Sept. 16. A trial date for his case hasn’t been scheduled yet.
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