UPDATED AT 3:15 PM:
Spokane County authorities are battling a wildfire that is threatening homes in the Beacon Hill area in northeast Spokane, near the 6400 block of Upriver Drive.
Authorities have issued a level 3 – or go now -- evacuation area, bounded on the north by Bigelow Gulch Road. It’s bounded by Thierman on the west, Argonne on the east and Upriver Drive on the south.
A level 2 – or be ready to go – evacuation area is in place to the north and east of that. It’s bounded by Uhlig Road on the north, Bigelow Gulch and Wellesley on the south, Espe on the west and Lehman/Pleasant Prairie on the east.
Watch Duty estimates the fire at nearly 300 acres. Brisk winds this afternoon are adding to the difficulty of fighting it.
Planes are dropping water and retardant on the fire. The American Red Cross has opened an evacuation center at the Spokane Valley United Methodist Church at 115 North Raymond Road.
Crews are fighting another new fire burning near Medical Lake, between I-90 and Highway 2. It is covering about two acres. Watch Duty reports authorities have ordered level 3 evacuations for the area that includes Kathy Lee Road on the north, Golden Court on the south, Lindsay on the east and Stanley on the west.
On a related note, Avista this afternoon pre-emptively shut down the power in parts of the Indian Trail area in north Spokane as the risk of wildfire grows. The utility says about 18-hundred customers will be affected. They’ve been asked to plan for an extended outage. Avista says it will keep the power off in that area as long as the fire risk is considered dangerous.
