UPDATED: Crews continue to make progress on the Upriver Beacon Fire in the Spokane Valley.
More than 225 firefighters from federal, state and local agencies are working to contain the fire, which started Tuesday near the 6400 block of East Upriver Drive in Spokane.
"It's still zero percent contained, but they are working hard out there today. I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a good increased containment level by the end of the day," said Captain Megan Hill, the communications officer for the incident management team assigned to the fire.
Zero percent contained, however, does not mean progress hasn’t been made to stop the fire’s growth.
“We’ve got a line around the fire, but we aren’t completely confident with the line. If it’s contained, we know it’s not going to spread more. So even though there is a line around it, there are still hotspots here and there and flames here and there. And we need to make sure those are going to be put out all the way, and that there’s no smoldering or anything that can escape and start the fire going again,” she said.
Nearly all of the people displaced by the fire are back home today. Others are glad to have the quiet again. William Nakoa lives about half a mile from the fire.
“We saw just the top of the flames, over the hillside. The wind was blowing that direction, but it seemed to have shifted to the north. So I stayed there. I wasn’t afraid at all, I wasn’t in any danger,” Nakoa said.
Though investigators are confident they know where the fire started, they do not yet know how it started.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has also announced that it has authorized federal funds to support efforts to fight the fire.