Spokane Complex Fires
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Open the map →The fires at a glance · updated Tuesday, Sept 29 3 fires (Old Trails, Autumn Lane, Fairview)·~9,900 acres·100% contained, all three·833 structures lost or damaged·700+ families lost homes·65,000+ evacuated, orders lifted Aug 11·1 death·$1B+ in damage — a state record Full picture →
Aerial video: FocusFly Media · Old Trails FireWhat changed today, and the day before. The Right Now board below tells you where things stand; this is the running record of how we got there, with links to the source on each item.
A hot, hazy end to September — and the rains that will test the burn scars have not come yet. Sunny with a high near 89° today, widespread haze and areas of smoke drifting in from fires elsewhere in the region, and an Air Quality Alert posted by the National Weather Service for Spokane County — Spokane Clean Air’s downtown monitor read Good this afternoon, so the haze is high and thin rather than at street level, but keep the N95 handy if you are working a lot. 86° Wednesday with a 20% chance of a shower or thunderstorm after dark, then 84° Thursday and back up to 90–91° over the weekend, with lows in the mid-50s. Two things follow. First, the dry stretch means the burned hillsides above Indian Trail, Five Mile and the Peone Prairie drainages have not yet had the storm that state geologists say is the real trigger — roughly a quarter-inch of rain in 15 minutes; when the first real fall storm is forecast, clear the culverts and move anything you cannot lose off the low ground. Second, countywide burn restrictions remain in effect; report any smoke to 911. NWS forecast → · Air quality → · ALERT Spokane →
The heat breaks today, and the haze is the only thing left to plan around. Mostly sunny with a high near 86°, widespread haze before 1 p.m. and areas of smoke between 10 a.m. and noon — drifting in from fires elsewhere in the region, not from anything burning here — and a southwest wind at 5–11 mph gusting to about 24 mph. That gust is the day’s only real caution: it is enough to lift ash off an uncovered lot, so wet the surface before you sift and keep the N95 on even when the air looks clear. No Red Flag Warning, Fire Weather Watch, Heat Advisory or Wind Advisory is in effect for Spokane County. The weekend keeps cooling: 80° Friday, 75° Saturday, 74° Sunday, back to 82° Monday, with overnight lows in the upper 40s and low 50s. Countywide burn restrictions remain in effect and the statewide burn ban runs through Sept 30; report any smoke to 911. NWS forecast → · Air quality → · ALERT Spokane →
One last hot day, and then the season lets go. Mostly sunny with a high near 95°, calm wind turning southwest at 5–8 mph this afternoon, and patchy smoke before 5 p.m. thickening to widespread haze tonight — that haze is drifting in from fires elsewhere in the region, not from anything burning here. No Red Flag Warning, Fire Weather Watch, or Heat Advisory is in effect for Spokane County. From here the numbers fall off: 87° Thursday with a southwest wind gusting to about 23 mph, 81° Friday, 77° Saturday, 78° Sunday. If you are sifting ash or working a burned lot, do it this morning — today the hazard is heat and what is in the dust, not fire behavior. Countywide burn restrictions remain in effect and the statewide burn ban runs through Sept 30; report any smoke to 911. NWS forecast → · Air quality → · ALERT Spokane →
One more hot, hazy day — then the season finally turns. Sunny and hot today with a high near 97°, light and variable wind, and widespread haze moving in after 4 p.m. as smoke from fires elsewhere in the region drifts over the Inland Northwest. No Red Flag Warning, Fire Weather Watch, or Heat Advisory is in effect for Spokane County this morning. Wednesday holds near 95°; Thursday drops to 86° with a southwest wind gusting to about 22 mph; Friday 81°, Saturday 76°. If you are working ash in a Tyvek suit, do it in the morning — heat is the hazard today, not fire behavior. Countywide burn restrictions remain in effect and the statewide burn ban runs through Sept 30; report any smoke to 911. NWS forecast → · Air quality → · ALERT Spokane →
The weekend everyone was watching passed quietly. The Fire Weather Watch that covered Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning expired without being upgraded to a Red Flag Warning, no new fire start was reported in Spokane County, and Avista called no public safety power shutoff. Sunday cooled as forecast before the heat returned Monday. That is the third straight week without a new local start — but the statewide burn ban runs through Sept 30, countywide restrictions remain, and Washington has now spent more than $200 million fighting 20 fires this season. Report smoke to 911 and keep ALERT Spokane switched on. Spokane Public Radio: $200M and counting → · ALERT Spokane →
Heat Advisory today, Fire Weather Watch tomorrow — this weekend is the one to watch. Sunny and very hot: a high in the mid-to-upper 90s, possibly 100°, under a Heat Advisory from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (“Major HeatRisk” — do ash work early, drink water, and check on anyone in a trailer or a borrowed room without air conditioning). Tonight brings a small chance of lightning; Saturday the pattern breaks: west-southwest winds of 15–25 mph with gusts of 30–40 mph, humidity of 17–25%, a high near 94, and a 10–20% chance of fast-moving thunderstorms that bring lightning and outflow winds but very little rain. The National Weather Service has a Fire Weather Watch for the Spokane area from Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning — a Watch is the step before a Red Flag Warning, and none had been issued as of this morning. Sunday cools to about 81 and stays breezy; Monday near 88. Countywide burn restrictions remain in effect. With the fires out, the risk this weekend is a new start: report smoke to 911 and keep ALERT Spokane switched on. Spokesman-Review: the weekend setup → · NWS forecast → · ALERT Spokane →
Hot today, hotter Friday, then a fire-weather watch for Saturday. Sunny with a high near 96° and calm wind today. Friday climbs to about 99° under a Heat Advisory from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. (“Major HeatRisk” — check on neighbors without air conditioning, especially anyone in a trailer or a borrowed room). Saturday brings the pattern change: gusts of 30–40 mph, humidity in the teens, and a chance of dry thunderstorms — the National Weather Service has posted a Fire Weather Watch from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday across a swath of Eastern Washington that includes the Spokane area. Sunday cools to the low 80s. Air quality is Moderate (AQI 79) with haze drifting in from fires elsewhere; no air quality alert is posted for Spokane, and countywide burn restrictions remain in effect. KHQ forecast → · Air quality now →
The kindest day in a week. Sunny, a high near 88°, light and variable wind, no smoke in the forecast and no alerts of any kind — with the heat building back in for Thursday and Friday. NWS forecast →
The third straight day above 90. Sunny with a high near 91° and patchy smoke returning after 10 a.m.; wind out of the southwest at 5–8 mph, gusting to 18. Wednesday looks similar — sunny, near 90. No Air Quality Alert is posted this morning. NWS forecast →
Warm and calm, with smoke drifting back overnight. Sunny with a high near 92° and light winds — the warmest day since the fires were knocked down. Patchy smoke returns after 1 a.m. and again Tuesday morning; Tuesday itself looks similar, near 90°. No Air Quality Alert is posted this morning, but it's worth staying a little vigilant overnight. NWS forecast →
Warm, calm, and quiet on the lines. Partly sunny with a high near 89° and light winds — the third straight stretch of weather that works in our favor. No Air Quality Alert is posted this morning. Smoke can still drift on a shifting breeze, so check current air quality if you're sensitive. NWS forecast →
Warm with a chance of storms. Mostly sunny and 88°, with a 20–30% chance of afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms and patchy smoke around midday. Rain helps the burn scar; lightning is the part fire officials watch, which is why the standing ask has not changed — stay vigilant for new starts.
Another gift of a day on the lines. Sunny with a high near 84° and light north winds of 3–5 mph; Saturday looks the same, a touch warmer near 88. Crews are using the stretch of calm weather to finish the job — officials say the firefighting phase wraps up this coming week.
And a milestone for our lungs: for the first time in nearly two weeks, no Air Quality Alert is posted for Spokane this morning. Smoke can still drift through — check current air quality if you're sensitive — but the trend is finally the right one. NWS forecast →
The best fire weather of the month. Sunny and noticeably cooler — a high near 82° with light north winds of 5–7 mph — and no storms in sight. Friday looks the same, sunny and 84. That north wind matters twice: it is gentle on the fire lines, and it pushes cleaner air into the valley.
But the Air Quality Alert is still with us. Haze and patchy smoke linger, especially mornings — sensitive groups should keep limiting time outdoors and check current air quality before outdoor plans. NWS forecast →
Another quiet day on the fire lines. Mostly sunny and cooler — a high near 86° with light south winds around 5 mph — and containment took a big jump at Tuesday's briefing (first item below). One thing to watch: a slight chance of evening showers and thunderstorms (about 20%) — welcome moisture, but fire managers always watch storm winds and lightning near uncontained line. Thursday looks sunny, calmer, and cooler still.
Smoke lingers this morning. Widespread haze and patchy smoke through midday, and the Air Quality Alert continues — sensitive groups should limit time outdoors and check current air quality before making outdoor plans. Cleaner air is on the way as winds turn north. NWS forecast →
Favorable, again. Sunny and near 89° with light southwest winds (5–9 mph), and the National Weather Service has no Red Flag Warnings in the forecast — mid-80s to around 90 with light winds right through the weekend. That is mop-up weather: officials report no growth on any of the three fires since the Red Flag weekend passed, and containment keeps climbing (first item below).
The catch is smoke. An Air Quality Alert remains in effect, with Spokane's air swinging between “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and “unhealthy” this week — haze in the mornings and evenings. Sensitive groups should limit time outdoors; check current air quality before outdoor plans. Smoke has already moved the Spokane Indians and Luke Bryan (now Oct 11) off this week's calendar. NWS forecast →
Updated Tuesday afternoon, September 29, 2026. This feed was not updated between Aug 27 and Sept 29; the entries dated Aug 28 through Sept 28 were written on Sept 29 from the record and are marked as such above.
Alongside the hard news, Spokane keeps writing another story — of a community that shows up for itself. Here are the latest chapters.
On the lots where the Old Trails fire left nothing standing, the people on their knees in the ash through August and into September were volunteers with Samaritan's Purse — more than 390 of them over a month, some local, some from out of state — sifting for the things a family can't replace: coins, rings, heirlooms. Gregg Morin, who lost his home to the Old Trails fire, watched them work his lot: “There's no pretty way to say it or glamorous way to go about it, they're doing the dirty work I had been thinking about doing myself for so long.”
By the time the operation wrapped up around Sept 10, the crews had worked more than 180 properties and nearly 9,000 volunteer hours — sifting lots, cutting hazard trees, tarping roofs, with uninsured and underinsured families first. “It's definitely sad to see what these people have gone through,” said Mykel Strickland, a volunteer from Deer Park. “But it's very rewarding to find stuff they want and be able to give it to them and have it still be intact.” The Spokane deployment has ended; still sifting? Southern Baptist Disaster Relief's ash-out crews are at (509) 995-9728. KXLY's story →
Mike Dixon, 69, ran cross country and track at Rogers High School in the 1970s and placed fourth in the 2-mile at state in 1975. His purple Rogers letter, his captain's trophies and his medals burned with his house in the Old Trails fire. His old coach, Dennis Schuerman, 80, called the Rogers athletic director, who found a new letter and medals, and a local trophy shop, which struck a custom state medal engraved with the time, 9:21.04. Neither would take a dollar. Schuerman presented them at a Rogers alumni golf tournament in mid-September. Spokesman-Review →
Spokane Valley coaches Natalie Middleton and Jordan Chester started Play On Spokane for the young athletes who lost cleats, running shoes, and ski gear along with everything else. Each bag is built for one kid — their sport, their sizes — and the coaches keep in touch after the handoff. “We wanted to keep ties with these people because the support just doesn't stop when we hand that first bag off,” Middleton said. Families request through the form linked from Instagram @playonspokane; the coaches say the bags keep coming through the whole 2026–27 school year. KXLY →
When the Old Trails fire jumped the river toward West Hoffman Place on Aug 1, a handful of neighbors — an ex-Marine, a steel-yard manager, a logistics-company owner, a construction maintenance man — stayed with their street. With metal shovels, plastic snow shovels, and garden hoses they cut about 50 feet of fire line between two houses, then took 45-minute shifts on a charged 2½-inch hose, knocking down flare-ups in attics and backyards through the night. The fire took two houses on their block, and not the rest. “I think all of us were of the same mindset,” Sam Cates said. “We couldn't sleep, had nothing better to do.” Spokesman-Review →
More than 30 Spokane Public Schools staff lost their homes in the fires, and 169 students lost theirs. On the first morning of school all of them went back anyway. Two teachers living out of what they could carry stood at their doors when the first bell rang, welcoming back children carrying the same thing. There is no tidy lesson in that, only the fact of it — which is most of what a community actually runs on. If your family is among them, complete the district's Impacted Family Survey even if nothing about your housing is settled: McKinney-Vento keeps your child at their own school, buses and Zum minivans reach temporary addresses, and the HEART team, (509) 354-7302, handles the backpack, the supplies, the rented clarinet, and the cleats. Spokesman-Review →
Three moments worth two minutes of your day.
Nothing has burned here since early August. All three fires are 100% contained — Old Trails 3,176 acres · Autumn Lane 5,764 · Fairview 992, about 9,900 acres; every evacuation order has long been lifted. The incident team’s final count is 833 structures lost or damaged (615 Old Trails, 160 Autumn Lane, 58 Fairview); the state’s filing to the White House yesterday counts 615 primary residences destroyed in Spokane County and the city’s new dashboard counts 578 dwellings lost inside city limits; more than 700 families lost their homes; more than 65,000 people were evacuated at the peak; one death is connected to the fires — a 73-year-old nursing-home resident who died after the Aug 1 evacuation. County Assessor Tom Konis’s estimate of total damage above $1 billion across roughly 1,200 properties still stands as the costliest wildfire in Washington history; his final assessment, promised for early October, has not been published. (The state’s “at least $188 million” figure in the federal request is home damage measured under FEMA’s own narrower criteria, not a revision of the Assessor’s number.) On the cause: the Old Trails fire is arson — the suspect was indicted by a federal grand jury Sept 9 on top of five state counts, with a state hearing Fri Oct 2 — while Autumn Lane and Fairview remain officially under investigation two months on; no agency has named a cause and no lawsuit has been filed against anyone. The hazard now: ash and asbestos on the lots, and the burn scars above the drainages. State geologists flagged more than 100 sites for debris-flow risk on Sept 2 — the trigger is about a quarter-inch of rain in 15 minutes — and their report is months out, so the first real fall storm will arrive before the guidance does. The weather is not helping yet: 89° today with haze and an Air Quality Alert from smoke drifting in from elsewhere, 86° Wednesday with a 20% chance of an evening thunderstorm, and 90° again by the weekend. Countywide burn restrictions remain in effect; report any smoke to 911. Spokesman-Review: the debris-flow survey → · Federal indictment → · REBUILD Spokane damage map → · NWS forecast →
On Monday, Sept 28, fifty-nine days after the fires, Gov. Ferguson formally asked the President for a major disaster declaration — the single gate for FEMA Individual Assistance, U.S. SBA disaster loans, Disaster Unemployment Assistance and HUD relief. It asks for Individual Assistance for Spokane, Stevens, Benton and Okanogan counties and the Spokane Tribe, an estimated $11.2 million for households (up to $42,500 each), and $117.7 million in Public Assistance for eleven counties, with debris removal named first. All twelve members of the state’s congressional delegation signed a letter the same day urging approval; Rep. Baumgartner said he is confident the President will sign. How long: the Governor does not know; last December’s flood request took about seven weeks, which puts the earliest realistic answer in mid-November. The state says it can start recovery operations “within days or weeks” of a yes. Three things follow. FEMA Individual Assistance is not open — you cannot register at DisasterAssistance.gov for these fires, and Spokane County’s own resource page still shows SBA deadlines from 2024; ignore them. U.S. SBA loans are not open, and here is the part worth knowing: the state did ask SBA for a stand-alone declaration for Douglas County’s Chelan Hills fire on Sept 18 and got it Sept 22; it did not ask for one for Spokane, and we are asking why. Disaster Unemployment Assistance has not been activated — file a regular claim; the waived waiting week ends with the week of Oct 3. What has landed: the IRS granted tax relief on Aug 31 — every federal return and payment due on or after July 31 is now due Feb 1, 2027 for anyone in Spokane County, automatically, and uninsured losses can go on the 2025 or 2026 return (write “3650-EM” on it). The state Department of Revenue still grants excise-tax extensions and penalty waivers on request, (360) 705-6705. And the Governor said he will go back to FEMA in October for roads and infrastructure. While you wait: take the Worthy grant and the state grant now; keep every receipt for debris and cleanup — the county says they may be reimbursable if the declaration comes; and have the loan file ready — proof of ownership, insurance papers, tax returns, a written loss list — so you can file the hour SBA opens. The Governor’s request → · IRS relief → · Our SBA Disaster Loans guide →
▶ Sun Oct 18 — Karen Worthy Memorial Wildfire Grant, $10,000. For any household whose
primary residence — owned or rented — was destroyed by Old Trails, Autumn Lane or Fairview.
One grant per residence. Not based on income, immigration status, insurance or any other aid you
received. Bring a government photo ID, passport, permanent-resident card or consular ID, and something that
shows you lived at the address. Apply at
karenworthywildfiregrant.com;
questions to WorthyGrant@SRLTRG.org — no phone is published.
Funded by Walt Worthy in memory of his wife, run by the Long Term Recovery Group with Innovia, Greenstone and
Washington Trust Bank. By Sept 21: 696 applications, about $2.5 million approved; by Sept 23, 300-plus
households paid. KXLY reports roughly one eligible household in five has not applied. If you
know one, this is the item to forward.
▶ No deadline — state Household Needs Grants. $750 / $1,500 / $2,250 by
household size for a primary residence destroyed or majorly damaged; no income test; renters and uninsured
owners qualify. The Sept 9 deadline this page carried did not hold — the state’s page lists none and
applications are open, with more than 600 households paid, nearly $1 million. Apply at
app.brightharbor.com,
call 211 (Mon–Sat 8–7), or in person at S.C.O.P.E. North, 33 E Lincoln Rd Ste 203,
Fri–Sun 10–7 (the state’s page misprints the address as “33rd”; call 211 before you go).
▶ Fri Oct 30 — Disaster Cash Assistance. DSHS extended it Sept 22, “or when the funds
are depleted, whichever comes first” — 877-501-2233 or WashingtonConnection.org;
an interview is required.
▶ Open — Goodwill’s Wildfire Relief Program (the city’s $1 million in rent and
utility money) and the Spokane Housing Authority (the county’s $475,000) — see the next
card. ▶ Sat Oct 31 — STCU’s relief loan, 2.99%, up to $10,000, up to 60 months;
Numerica’s 0% loan up to $5,000 has no deadline. ▶ No deadline — Spokane REALTORS®
housing grants for mortgage, rent or hotel costs on a damaged primary residence —
wildfirerelief@spokanerealtors.com,
(509) 326-9222.
Closed: Red Cross financial assistance — “the initial registration for immediate
financial assistance has closed”; if you received an invitation and never finished, call
(800) 733-2767. Banner Bank’s 0% loan (Sept 4). The Airbnb.org stays through
211 (Aug 30). DoorDash’s restaurant grant, which never opened for Spokane.
Karen Worthy Grant →
· State grants →
· DSHS →
· Recovery Map →
The door this page waited a month for opened on Sept 2. Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest runs the city’s Wildfire Relief Program with the $1 million the state Department of Commerce sent Spokane. Eligible: you lived in Spokane County at the time of the fire, were displaced by it, and your household is under 120% of area median income — roughly $90,000–$108,000 for a household of three, deliberately high enough to reach working families burning savings while an insurance settlement crawls. Covered: rent, hotel or motel nights while displaced, move-in costs and deposits, past-due rent and its fees, RV or manufactured-home lot rent, utility bills and arrears, application and background-check fees, renters insurance a lease requires. How it pays: “through direct payments to landlords, utility companies, or other approved third-party providers” — the money does not come to you, it goes to whoever you owe. Apply: the Wildfire Relief Intake Form on Goodwill’s page, (509) 838-4246, or 130 E Third Ave. What Goodwill has not published, and the city’s Aug 21 release did: expenses count back to July 31 (find those receipts) and the money must be spent by January 2027. No per-household cap, no document list, and no count of families served has been published by anyone — we asked. The county’s share went a different way: commissioners accepted their $500,000 from Commerce on Sept 14 and contracted $475,000 to the Spokane Housing Authority for rapid rehousing — rent, deposits, furniture — to be spent by Jan 31, 2027. SHA’s wildfire page describes a disaster-recovery voucher preference and does not yet mention the contract, so ask for the fire rehousing money by name: (509) 328-2953, 25 W Nora Ave, walk-ins Mon, Tue and Thu 9:30–4. If you live in unincorporated county, start there; in the city, start with Goodwill; if you are not sure which applies to you, call both. Goodwill: Wildfire Relief Program → · Spokane Housing Authority → · City announcement →
The city’s renter protection is law. City Council passed it Wednesday, Sept 9, by 5–2 (a week later than this page had told you; the vote was deferred over amendments), and it took effect that night. What it does, precisely: a tenant who self-certifies, under penalty of perjury, a loss of at least 10% of average monthly household income because the emergency made their workplace unusable, cost them a job or pay, or cost them customers in the affected area — and who has applied for disaster, unemployment or other assistance — has an affirmative defense to an eviction for nonpayment. Back rent is repaid over the twelve months after the emergency declaration ends, with no late fees; repayment plans are encouraged. It is permanent code and switches on in any future declared emergency. The catch, and it is this week: the defense applies only while the mayor’s emergency declaration is in effect, and that declaration expires Thursday, Oct 1 unless Council renews it. As of this afternoon no renewal has been reported by the city or any newsroom; Council’s legislative session is Wed Sept 30, 6 p.m., and we will carry the result here. Also expiring: the state’s protections in Proclamation 26-03.2 — a landlord may not treat a fire-vacated home as abandoned, and no tenant may be evicted for hosting displaced neighbors or pets — run through Sept 30 (not Aug 31, as we had said). If you are behind on rent: apply to Goodwill or the Housing Authority above now — both pay landlords directly and having applied is part of the defense; tell your landlord in writing; and if you have a court date, get legal help before it, not after — the Northwest Consumer Law Center’s disaster line was already carrying more than 80 fire families when Council voted. City: what passed → · Spokesman-Review → · AG landlord-tenant →
The EPA sweep is complete. Crews cleared 789 properties of paint, fuel, pesticide,
propane and lithium batteries — more than 195,000 pounds in 29 days, finished Sept 16, a month
inside FEMA’s deadline, at no cost to owners. The EPA hotline is disconnected. Hazardous material
the crews missed now goes to Spokane County Solid Waste, (509) 477-6800; before you
rebuild, confirm your parcel is marked complete. The agency’s own page draws the line: its mission “did not
include removal of fire ash and other debris.”
Phase 2 has not changed since August. No city, county, state or federal program removes a
collapsed structure or its ash from private property. The one plan that exists is conditional: county staff
told commissioners Sept 2 that if the presidential declaration is granted, “it’s the state’s intent to do
a single state contract” with one debris contractor, and that owners should save every receipt
for possible reimbursement. Yesterday’s federal request asks for exactly that money. The Governor also said
Ecology will exempt debris piles from certain permits; the amendment was not yet posted today. Until any of it
lands, the required sequence: (1) an AHERA-certified asbestos survey — still
required, Clean Air’s page was updated Sept 25 and it has not been waived; a local tester found about 80% of
pre-1980 homes positive; (2) a Notice of Intent to Spokane Clean Air, fees and waiting
periods still waived, (509) 477-4727 — no demolition permit issues without it;
(3) the demolition permit: $28.50 in the city under ordinance C36924
(the city’s own rebuilding page still says “$35,” so ask at the counter), $33.62 in the
county; (4) a licensed hauler — clean survey to Graham Road or the transfer stations with the
survey in hand, positive survey to a certified abatement firm. No landfill fee waiver has been announced. Free
muscle: the Southern Baptist ash-out crews, (509) 995-9728, are still listed on the
community hub; Samaritan’s Purse finished its Spokane deployment about Sept 10 after 180-plus properties. And
one thing still to do before the lot is cleared: if an urn was in the house, ask Alta Heritage to search first,
altaheritagefoundation.org.
EPA →
· Clean Air asbestos rules →
· County debris page →
The city’s own count on Sept 15: 68 demolition permits issued, about 13% of destroyed properties; one single-family rebuild permit issued (Aug 27, in two days, on the 2023 plans the house was built from) and three in review; 32 roofing permits. That is the honest pace. What is now available to speed it: ▶ REBUILD Spokane, a public parcel-by-parcel damage dashboard — check your own assessment, report errors to RebuildSpokane@spokanecity.org. ▶ A remote permit office at the Shadle Park Library, a planner and plan reviewer on site daily through Fri Oct 2 (the city’s release says 9–6, its rebuilding page 9–5 — call (509) 625-6300 first); the city will “evaluate extending” it. ▶ No plan-review fee if your approved plans from the last five years are on file, and a rebuild on the same footprint needs no separate demolition permit. ▶ In the county: commissioners cut inspection fees 50% for fire rebuilds on Sept 22 — about $650 off a typical house — with priority processing and a coordinator per application, (509) 477-3675. ▶ Proposed, not passed: the city’s two emergency ordinances from Sept 15 — like-for-like waivers so a house goes back where it stood, ADUs first so a small unit can be lived in while the main house is rebuilt, no general-facilities charge on a same-meter rebuild, and permit fees deferred to occupancy. As of today no vote has been reported; the rebuilding page still says these are “being pursued.” The city also says it intends to allow RVs and trailers as temporary housing on burned lots with winterization; the county already does, with an annual progress letter. ▶ Announced by the state yesterday, not yet in force: a waiver of the state fee on building permits in affected counties; a push for the Building Code Council to let pre-2015 homes rebuild to the 2015 energy code (owners at the time of the fire only; the council has adopted nothing and meets Oct 16 and 30); and a sales-tax rebate on rebuild costs to be proposed to the 2027 Legislature — roughly $36,000 on a $400,000 rebuild if it passes, which is January at the earliest. Contractor scams are real and Spokane Police warned about them Sept 1: verify every license at L&I, never pay in full up front, get the scope and price in writing. City rebuilding page → · REBUILD Spokane dashboard → · County fee cut →
Tomorrow, Wed Sept 30, the Insurance Commissioner’s Aug 3 emergency order runs out: the 45-day premium grace period, waived late and reinstatement fees, the ban on cancelling a fire survivor’s policy for nonpayment, and nonrenewal notice stretched to 120 days on property and 60 on auto. The order lets the Commissioner extend it 30 days at a time while the Governor’s emergency stands, and it does stand — but as of this afternoon no extension has been published, and her Sept 28 column on the recovery does not mention one. We will post it the hour it appears. If a premium you cannot pay comes due this week, call the insurer today and get the hardship terms in writing; if refused, call the Commissioner’s consumer line, 1-800-562-6900. A second order, on one-time early prescription refills and a 60-day grace period on health-plan premiums, has no stated end date. What the Commissioner is hearing: insured losses statewide about $600 million, $535 million residential; “more compliments than not” about carriers; and the main complaint is the full personal-property inventory some demand before paying contents. One carrier paid 65% of contents limits with no inventory and she said she may urge the others to match — cite that if yours is asking you to itemize a house that no longer exists. One reminder that has not changed: additional living expenses and advance payments are terms of your policy, not a state order — ask your adjuster. Mon Oct 12, 6–8:30 p.m.: the monthly claims workshop, this one on “the first couple of months after a wildfire,” with one-on-one help, at Spokane Falls Community College, Building 24, Room 110, 3410 W Whistalks Way; free evening parking; RSVP on Eventbrite. Tue Oct 20, 7 p.m.: United Policyholders’ survivor-to-survivor Zoom forum for the Spokane fires. Oct 12 workshop → · The emergency order → · United Policyholders →
Step one: complete the Long Term Recovery Group’s contact form — a case manager follows up with your household, and that connection is the doorway to every form of help that follows, including the Unmet Needs Roundtable where funders close the gaps insurance leaves. Their office is 3718 N Monroe St #3; they publish no phone. Step two, the cash: the $10,000 Karen Worthy grant by Oct 18 if your home was destroyed (karenworthywildfiregrant.com); the state grant (app.brightharbor.com or 211, no deadline); Disaster Cash Assistance by Oct 30 (877-501-2233); Goodwill for rent and utilities ((509) 838-4246) or the Housing Authority ((509) 328-2953). Step three: tell the city and county what you still need — those reports are the evidence in the federal request now sitting at the White House. Case management is also available from Catholic Charities Eastern Washington, (509) 505-4462, which still runs the broadest single offer in town — grocery and gas cards, hotel and Airbnb referrals, clothing, hygiene, counseling, pet care, diapers, school supplies — (509) 455-3042, Mon–Thu 8–5; 1,716 requests and about $190,000 in gift cards so far. Need supplies? The NorthTown pick-up center closed Sept 25. The Salvation Army, 204 E Indiana Ave, (509) 325-6810, still hands out gift and debit cards, clothing vouchers, food and Tyvek suits (1,030 cards and 5,659 people served by Sept 11); Maddie’s Closet, 1004 E 8th, has free clothing and household goods; Partners INW in the Valley, 10814 E Broadway. Second Harvest’s Perry Street walk-up markets ran into mid-September with nothing posted for October — call (509) 534-6678 before a trip. Nowhere to sleep tonight? 211 or the Red Cross, (800) 733-2767; the free Airbnb.org stays have ended. A faith-community door: United in Crisis Greater Spokane’s survivor hotline, (509) 265-8900. Lost your home or business? Avista zeroed your bill — (800) 227-9187. Everything else: spokanecommunityresources.org and 211.
Spokane Public Schools still counts 169 students who lost their homes and more than 30 staff who lost theirs — Indian Trail Elementary 42, Shadle Park High School 38, Flett Middle School 25 to 35 — and has published nothing newer since the first week of school; Mead has never published a count; Nine Mile Falls had about 20 students’ homes destroyed or badly damaged. What is new: Keep Kids Moving, launched Sept 4 by the city with SPS, Mead and Nine Mile Falls — $100 gift cards for sports and recreation gear for any K–12 student whose home was lost, seeded by the Mariners, the Parks Foundation and the city’s H.O.M.E. fund. Ask your child’s school counselor. Play On Spokane keeps building sport-specific gear bags through the whole school year — requests through the Google form on its Instagram, @playonspokane. The standing checklist still holds: if you are displaced, complete the district’s Impacted Family Survey even if nothing is settled — McKinney-Vento keeps your child at their own school with transportation from wherever you are, yellow buses where routes reach and Zum minivans where families have scattered — and the HEART team, (509) 354-7302, handles backpacks, supplies, instrument rentals and cleats. Free clothes closet at Shadle Park HS; Teen & Kid Closet (ages 0–22) calls fire-affected families directly, (509) 534-1151. Counseling is in every building. Keep Kids Moving → · spokaneschools.org → · mead354.org →
Giving money? The Innovia Foundation’s Spokane Complex Wildfire Response
Fund is still the region’s fund; the last published tally is $5.3 million committed
(Spokesman-Review, Aug 19) — Innovia has published no newer total in six weeks, and we have asked for one.
Innovia takes no fee and makes grants through vetted nonprofits, not to individuals; it also hosts the
Karen Worthy fund, which is the one direct-to-household check in town and which you can give to
as well. Recent gifts: the Sikh Temple of Spokane, $30,000; the Spokane Buddhist Temple, $20,000; Tzu Chi USA put
about $250,000 in debit cards directly into 300-plus households. Habitat for Humanity’s ReBUILD
Spokane fund is open for the long game — asbestos, permits, repairs for the underinsured — though
Habitat says plainly it is not yet promising repairs or rebuilds.
Give through Innovia →
Giving goods? The county’s NorthTown donation site closed Sept 25 and is no longer
accepting anything. Clothing and household items go to the Salvation Army Thrift Store, 2020 N
Division; gift cards — still the most-requested item — to 222 E Indiana; food to
Hope Market, 204 E Indiana. Giving time? volunteerspokane.org and JustServe list
openings; Samaritan’s Purse has wrapped its Spokane operation.
Give wisely. The Attorney General is still warning of fraudulent fundraisers: give to
organizations you know, and be cautious with crowdfunding pages unless you personally know the family.
And if you are the one rebuilding: Spokane Police warned Sept 1 about crews working the burn zone
for “a quick dollar.” Check every license and bond at
L&I, never pay in full before work
starts, and put the scope and price in writing.
The AG’s guidance →
· Full giving guide →
Wed Sept 30: the Insurance Commissioner’s emergency order expires unless extended · the state’s abandoned-property and host protections (Proclamation 26-03.2) expire · City Council legislative session, 6 p.m., 808 W Spokane Falls Blvd — the emergency-declaration renewal would logically be here · Thu Oct 1: the city’s emergency declaration expires unless renewed — and with it the renter defense · Fri Oct 2: last scheduled day of the city’s remote permit office at Shadle Park Library (may be extended) · state hearing in the Old Trails arson case · Sat Oct 3: last week new unemployment claims get the waived waiting week · Mon Oct 12, 6–8:30 p.m.: Insurance Commissioner’s claims workshop, SFCC Bldg 24 Rm 110, 3410 W Whistalks Way, RSVP on Eventbrite · Fri Oct 16 and Fri Oct 30: State Building Code Council meetings, where the energy-code flexibility the Governor asked for would be taken up · Sun Oct 18: Karen Worthy grant applications close · Tue Oct 20, 7 p.m.: United Policyholders survivor-to-survivor Zoom forum · October (no date): the Governor’s second FEMA request, for roads and infrastructure · Fri Oct 30: Disaster Cash Assistance deadline · the 60-day expansions in Proclamation 26-03.2 run out · Sat Oct 31: STCU relief loan window closes · second-half property taxes due to the County Treasurer, with no fire relief announced on the date itself — file the Destroyed Property form with the Assessor if you have not, and confirm with the Treasurer whether a Saturday deadline rolls to Monday · Mid-November: the earliest realistic White House decision on the disaster declaration, on the Governor’s seven-week estimate · November: Plan Commission hearing on wildfire and evacuation policy · January 2027: the Legislature convenes; the rebuild sales-tax rebate bill · Jan 31, 2027: Goodwill and Housing Authority money must be spent · Mon Feb 1, 2027: postponed IRS deadline. Removed from this list: the Sept 19 MLK Center resource fair (never confirmed anywhere), the Nov 4 REALTORS® date (unsourced), and the Governor’s late-September D.C. trip (did not happen). No community meeting has been called by fire officials since Aug 13; one will appear here the day it is announced. Council meetings → · OIC workshops → · Worthy grant →
Recovery involves dozens of organizations, federal to neighborhood — and when you’re navigating something this big, you need a map: where you are, where you’re going, and who meets you at each step. Columns are who they are. Rows are where you are. Tap any tile to see what that organization does for you at that stage — and go straight to them. Tip: click any stage box on the left to focus that part of the road — press Esc any time to see the whole map again.
📱 On a phone? The Recovery Map is best viewed on a computer or tablet — on mobile, swipe each stage’s row sideways to see all six columns.
Faded tiles either open later (we’ll flip them the day they do) or have finished their role — the tile says which · dashes mean no organization fills that step yet · listing here means we’ve verified the resource, not that any organization endorses this page. See something missing or wrong? Help us get this right.
The fires that swept through our region have taken homes, businesses, and a sense of safety from thousands of our neighbors. Our hearts are with the families who have lost so much, and with the firefighters and first responders still protecting our community. Many of you have asked the same question: How can we help? This page is our answer — one trusted local channel for giving, and a clear guide to the resources our neighbors need most.
Spokane has made the turn. With all three fires contained and the assistance-center era complete, our community's work has shifted — from short-term fire response (putting out fires, sheltering neighbors, moving supplies by the trailer-load) to the long-term work of recovery: housing, insurance, cleanup, rebuilding, and staying beside every family for as long as it takes. Our region has walked this road before — and that experience is now our advantage. Recovery from a disaster this size moves in three phases, and understanding them is how a community's generosity meets real need. Dollars moved from day one: the morning the Disaster Assistance Center opened, case managers were putting grocery and Visa gift cards directly into families' hands, and Innovia's first grants — $20,000 to establish the center and $10,000 in Visa gift cards for 200 affected families — were public within the week.
Safety, food, housing, and clothing. Grants flowed to the nonprofits doing this work — the Spokane Regional Long Term Recovery Group, Catholic Charities, the Red Cross, and more — and nearly 1,800 households met case managers at the Disaster Assistance Center before it closed Aug 12. Direct cash is still open: the $10,000 Karen Worthy grant (by Oct 18), state Household Needs Grants (no deadline), and Disaster Cash Assistance (by Oct 30) — see the Right Now board. Red Cross assistance closed Aug 30.
Once damage assessments are complete, help shifts to keeping families safe and stable while insurance and rebuilding plans come together: rental assistance, down payments, and the practical needs — after 2023, that even meant generators and winterizing campers families were living in.
Homes rise again — many built with volunteer labor that stretches every construction dollar, finishing homes for under $100,000 each. Thirteen homes from the 2023 fires are complete and seven more are underway right now. This community does not walk away.
How help reaches a family
Complete the Long Term Recovery Group contact form (the Disaster Assistance Center has closed) and get connected with a case manager. This is the single doorway to everything that follows.
With the family's permission, one shared assessment is used by every relief nonprofit — no repeating your story ten times, and full transparency on verified need.
Case managers bring each family's remaining gaps to a table of funders — one covers the roof, another the tree removal — so every resource in the region is maximized. Requests are weighed on fire connection, other assistance exhausted, household vulnerability, and reasonable cost.
Resources reach the families with the least — the underinsured and uninsured — and stay committed through rebuilding, however long it takes.
If you lost your home, you are probably getting advice — and phone calls — from every direction. Here is the honest sequence, drawn from families and builders who have walked this road after Washington's past fires. The most important thing to know up front: weeks to months will pass before construction begins, and that is normal — cleanup, testing, insurance, design, and permits all come first. Anyone promising to start building next week deserves extra questions, not a signature.
File your insurance claim, complete the Long Term Recovery Group form, and photograph everything before anything is moved. Keep every receipt — lodging, meals, replacement clothing — many policies reimburse living expenses. With thousands of claims filed at once, an adjuster visit can take two to three months; that wait is frustrating but expected. Claim problems? The state Insurance Commissioner's experts are at 1-800-562-6900.
Burned lots — and even standing homes nearby — can hold real hazards: ash, heavy metals, and airborne residues that drift indoors. Wear an N95, gloves, and long sleeves; air out standing homes and watch for symptoms in kids and pets; see the Health District's after-the-fire guidance before you spend real time on site.
Debris removal and site clearing come before any design work. Be clear-eyed about what exists: the EPA's free sweep covered hazardous household material only and finished Sept 16 (789 properties), and as of Sept 29 no city, county, state or federal program has been announced that hauls away the burned structure itself — that cost is yours, along with the required asbestos survey and the Notice of Intent to Spokane Clean Air. The one plan on paper is a single state debris contract if the presidential declaration requested Sept 28 is granted, so save every receipt and ask your case manager what's covered before hiring anyone; we post each public program the day it opens. No federal burn-area assessment has been published; state geologists are surveying the scars for debris-flow risk, and the Spokane Conservation District offers free post-fire site visits and a September recovery guide (cost-share depending on funding; projects done by Nov 1 — see the Recovery Map).
Rebuild here, rebuild elsewhere, or take a settlement — there is no wrong answer, but the fine print matters: many policies pay more if you rebuild on the same site, VA and other government-backed loans carry special post-disaster requirements, and the county assessor offers destroyed-property tax abatement. Talk to your insurer, your lender, and your case manager before deciding — and don't let anyone rush you.
Local builder capacity is tight, and out-of-area contractors are already cold-calling fire families. Verify any contractor's registration, bond, and insurance at the state's L&I contractor lookup; start from vetted lists like the Spokane REALTORS® wildfire resources; and treat door-knockers, pressure tactics, and large up-front cash deposits as red flags.
Design → bids → permit → construction, through city or county permitting depending on your address. The city's remote permit office at the Shadle Park Library runs daily through Oct 2 ((509) 625-6300), approved plans from the last five years carry no plan-review fee, and the county has cut rebuild inspection fees in half; the city's like-for-like and ADU-first rules are proposed, not yet passed. Expect this stretch to take months — by Sept 15 the city had issued 68 demolition permits and one rebuild permit — and we are tracking permitting progress on the Recovery Scoreboard and will push for the fast, coordinated process families deserve.
Everything you need to know about SBA disaster loans — the U.S. Small Business Administration's low-interest disaster loans are the single biggest recovery tool for businesses, nonprofits, homeowners, and renters after a federally declared disaster. Loans are not yet available for the Spokane fires — the Governor formally requested the major disaster declaration on Mon Sept 28, and a decision is a seven-week wait if December's flood precedent holds, so mid-November at the earliest. (The state took the faster stand-alone SBA route for Douglas County's Chelan Hills fire on Sept 18 and had loans open Sept 22; it has not done so for Spokane, and we are asking why.) Now is the time to get ready, and this handbook (shared through the Spokane Complex Fires Business Resource Group) is how.
Two channels cover everything. Money goes through the Innovia Foundation's Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund — 100% to relief, no fees, every grant published (full details just below). Goods go through The Salvation Army — clothing, household items, gift cards, and food, received and distributed for as long as families need them. And this community has already shown how it's done: five trailers and four truckloads of business attire in a day and a half, No-Li and eight partners turning a single day of sales into $102,167 for families who lost homes, and $5.3 million in committed support for the Innovia fund so far. Read the stories →
Together with Spokane Public Schools, the SBA handed its collection effort — five trailers and four truckloads of business attire from 200-plus donors in the first week — to The Salvation Army, which receives, stores, and distributes goods for as long as families need them. Cash gifts still go to Innovia (below); the Salvation Army is the channel for everything physical.
SBA's Gavin Cooley filmed this outside 222 E Indiana in the fires' second week: a line of cars two blocks long, moving quickly, as families picked up food, hygiene items, diapers, and other short-term needs — while donated clothing rolled in across the complex at 2020 N Division. It still works this way. “Hats off to the Salvation Army — another great reminder that this outpouring of generosity is part of Spokane's DNA.”
Salvation Army Thrift Store
2020 N Division St
Mon–Sat 9 AM–6 PM · Sun 10 AM–4 PM
(509) 325-6805
Clothing and household goods, new or used. What families need now goes straight to the floor; bigger items like mattresses are stored and released as households are ready for them. Housewares, linens, and furniture can also go to Heroes Homestead (small items at the Lithia dealerships).
Drop gift cards at the Salvation Army office,
222 E Indiana Ave
Or give online at
salarmy.us/spokanefires
During this fire event, 100% of monetary relief reaches fire victims — no administrative deduction, no fees. More than $250,000 had gone back into the community by mid-August, and that number is still climbing.
Hope Market grocery store
204 E Indiana Ave
Mon–Fri 10 AM–4 PM
The Salvation Army's grocery program, feeding fire-affected households alongside its regular neighbors in need.
With the full support of our Board of Directors, the Spokane Business Association recommends the Innovia Foundation's Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund as the trusted local channel for giving. Pointing our whole community toward one proven fund — rather than splitting our generosity a hundred ways — multiplies the impact of every dollar.
Make checks payable to Innovia Foundation with “Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund” in the memo line, and mail to:
Innovia Foundation
Attn: Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund
818 W. Riverside Ave., Suite 650
Spokane, WA 99201
Matches: STCU's Here for Good Foundation matched the first $100,000 of community gifts — that drive put $325,117 into this fund. Ask your own employer about a match: Boeing, Microsoft, and Bank of America are matching employee gifts.
We know donors want more than promises. Innovia Foundation has served the Inland Northwest as its community foundation for decades, and its wildfire response record is public, specific, and independently reported. Here is what that record shows — with links so you can verify every claim.
Wondering whether the 2023 fire donations actually reached people?
It's a fair question — and the answer is public. Innovia published the complete record: every grant, every dollar, every recipient, from 2023 through today. Read the full distribution record → or see our summary of where the money went below.
Innovia states plainly that 100% of gifts to the fund will be distributed to vetted nonprofit organizations serving affected individuals and families — Innovia takes no administrative cut.
After the Gray and Oregon Road fires, Innovia's fund raised $1.4 million from more than 3,200 donors and distributed all of it — including $1.07 million that helped complete 13 rebuilt homes (with more planned) in partnership with Spokane County.
Innovia publishes a distribution table listing every wildfire-recovery grant — date, recipient nonprofit, amount, and purpose — from 2023 through today. That is the standard of accountability this fund is held to.
A disaster this size brings hard questions about money — and it should. Here are the plain facts about how this fund works, from Innovia's published record and the regional coordination briefings.
Federal law requires community-foundation funds to flow through eligible nonprofit organizations — and that structure is a feature, not a hurdle. Every family works with a case manager, every loss is verified through a shared damage assessment, and every dollar is coordinated so help lands where it's truly needed. That same process is what keeps scammers and bad actors out of the pipeline your generosity flows through.
Every dollar is published — every grant, every amount, every purpose. Names are not, and never will be. Families who lost everything deserve help without surrendering their privacy. That's a principle, and it protects your neighbors.
More than 3,500 individual gifts have reached Innovia's wildfire funds — many of them $5 and $10 — on the way to $5.3 million in committed support. After the 2023 fires, gifts like those combined with volunteer labor to rebuild homes for less than $100,000 each — 13 completed and more underway. Small gifts, multiplied and stretched, put roofs over families.
No fund can — the damage runs far beyond what philanthropy could ever cover, and many families will discover they were underinsured. What this fund does is stabilize families through the crisis and then target the greatest unmet needs, prioritizing neighbors with the fewest resources. That's not a limitation to apologize for — it's exactly what a community fund is for.
“Our community is facing an incredibly difficult moment right now, with hundreds of families losing their homes and businesses to these fires. The Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund exists so we can move resources quickly to the nonprofits and organizations already on the ground helping people… We know from experience that recovery doesn't end when the fires are out — it takes sustained support over the months and even years ahead, and Innovia is committed to walking alongside our region for the long term.”
Because of IRS rules for community foundations, Innovia doesn't hand out cash directly — it grants funds to vetted nonprofit organizations that deliver help to fire survivors: emergency shelter, rental assistance, food, utilities, clothing, gas cards, case management, and ultimately rebuilt homes. In 2023–26, that money flowed through trusted local organizations like these:
Nonprofits serving fire-affected families can apply for a grant from the Spokane Complex fund here.
How the 2023 wildfire fund was spent
$1.4M fully distributed, per Innovia's published report:
Source: Innovia Gray & Oregon Road Wildfire Recovery Fund report.
Spokane's generosity these past three weeks has been extraordinary. A few simple practices make sure every dollar of it lands in trustworthy hands.
Beyond dollars: give food the right way, volunteer where it counts, give blood, offer housing or business space, and put your working hands to use. Every channel below is vetted and current.
The Salvation Army's Hope Market grocery store, 204 E Indiana Ave, takes food donations Monday–Friday, 10 AM–4 PM. Second Harvest and Partners INW are also accepting food — but only certain items, so check 2-harvest.org and partnersinw.org before you drop off.
Share this page with employees and customers. Turn an event into a fundraiser. Consider a match. A short note from a trusted employer directing people to one local fund multiplies the whole community's impact.
The region routes volunteer energy through volunteerspokane.org, the vetted channel used by the schools and the resource hub, and through JustServe. Samaritan's Purse wrapped its Spokane sifting operation around Sept 10; Second Harvest and the Long Term Recovery Group's rebuild programs are where hands are needed through the fall.
Support the crews and workers carrying this crisis: the Firefighter Benevolent Fund (Local 29), and Big Table for restaurant and hospitality workers displaced by the fires.
Within days of the fires, our own members moved. Founding funders — Washington Trust Bank, STCU's Here for Good Foundation, Premera, and ICCU, all SBA members — seeded the Innovia fund, and member commitments have grown from there. This is what business leadership looks like in a crisis.
Commitments as shared publicly or with the SBA community as of September 29, 2026.
Has your business made a commitment — or do you want help making one? Tell us, and we'll amplify it.
Beyond donations, Spokane businesses and nonprofits are opening their doors, their services, and their balance sheets to fire-affected neighbors. Offers our members and community have shared — the first-week offers we could not reconfirm have been retired, as we said on Aug 21 they would be:
The region's goods lifeline — for as long as families need it. Together with Spokane Public Schools, the SBA handed our community's trailer-loads of donations to the Salvation Army, which now receives, stores, and distributes goods at scale: families pick up clothing, food, hygiene items, and diapers at 222 E Indiana Ave; donations of clothing and household goods go to the Thrift Store at 2020 N Division St; food donations to Hope Market, 204 E Indiana Ave (Mon–Fri 10–4). salarmy.us/spokanefires
0% Emergency Assistance Loans of $1,000–$15,000, up to 36 months, no origination fees, for Spokane and Stevens County residents affected by the fires — the application window closed Sept 4; Banner's page shows no extension. Existing borrowers can still ask about payment relief, 800-272-9933. Details
0% Wildfire Relief Emergency Loan up to $5,000 for 36 months with no payments for the first 90 days, plus payment extensions and waived fees for affected members. numericacu.com/wildfire-support
A free community resource center, now open to anyone impacted or displaced by the fires: free clothing for infants, children, women, and men, plus household items, toys, kitchen goods, and appliances — everything free. Maddie's Closet has given away roughly $125,000 in clothing in six months and is now one of Spokane's largest distributors of free clothing, with donated goods arriving from all 50 states. Donations of new baby essentials welcomed. 1004 E 8th Ave · (509) 315-5146 · maddiesplace.org
Turned a single day of Beer Campus sales — with eight partner businesses — into $102,167 for families who lost homes, blowing past the original $50,000 goal.
Grants toward a mortgage on a damaged primary residence, rent, or hotel costs while you're displaced — no published deadline, so apply now. The brokerage drop-in centers of the first weeks have wound down; apply online, at area realty offices, or call. Apply · (509) 326-9222 · wildfirerelief@spokanerealtors.com
Emergency-housing referrals are arranged through 211. The free Airbnb.org stays ended statewide Aug 30; for the money to pay for a place, apply to Goodwill's Wildfire Relief Program, (509) 838-4246, or the Spokane Housing Authority, (509) 328-2953.
Offering space, services, discounts, or relief programs to fire-affected neighbors? Tell the SBA and we'll list it here and amplify it to the community.
Recovery help for businesses is opening in stages. The SBA is tracking the federal disaster-declaration process daily — several of the biggest programs below unlock the moment a major disaster declaration is approved, and we will update this page the day that happens.
Spokane's recovery runs through its nonprofits, churches, and community groups. If your organization is serving impacted families — or wants to — these are the doors in.
Recoveries go right when progress is visible — and communities that tracked their rebuild publicly, parcel by parcel and permit by permit, recovered faster than those that didn't. This board gathers the region's recovery numbers in one place, from every jurisdiction, and names the numbers that haven't been published yet. Updated Tuesday afternoon, September 29, 2026.
Old Trails 100% (3,176 acres) · Autumn Lane 100% (5,764) · Fairview 100% (992) — about 9,900 acres inside the final perimeters, nothing burning since early August, every evacuation lifted, command long since back with local units. The firefighting phase ended in August. The season has not quite let go — 89° today, haze and an Air Quality Alert from fires elsewhere, 90° again this weekend — and countywide burn restrictions remain in effect. The next number that matters here is the first fall storm: state geologists put the debris-flow trigger on the burn scars at about a quarter-inch of rain in 15 minutes.
615 on Old Trails, 160 on Autumn Lane, 58 on Fairview — the incident management team's final tally (Aug 14); more than 700 families lost their homes, and one death is connected to the fires. Two newer counts sit beside it, measuring different things: the state's federal request (Sept 28) counts 615 primary residences destroyed in Spokane County and 2,542 homes damaged statewide, and the city's REBUILD Spokane dashboard counts 578 dwellings lost inside city limits (Old Trails 503, Autumn Lane 49, Fairview 26). County Assessor Tom Konis's estimate of total damage above $1 billion across roughly 1,200 properties — the costliest wildfire in state history — still stands; his final assessment, promised for early October, has not been published. The Insurance Commissioner puts insured losses at about $600 million ($535 million residential), against Cotality's $1–1.3 billion estimate. The state's “at least $188 million” is FEMA's narrower eligible-loss measure, not a revision of any of these.
The hazardous-material sweep finished Sept 16: 789 properties, more than 195,000 pounds, 29 days, a month inside FEMA's deadline, at no cost to owners. That is the one cleanup number that is finished. The rebuild numbers are early: by Sept 15 the city had issued 68 demolition permits — about 13% of destroyed properties — and one single-family rebuild permit, with three in review and 32 roofing permits; the county publishes no permit counts. Between the two sits the step nobody funds: the asbestos survey, the Notice of Intent and the hauling of the structure itself, all still the owner's cost, with a state debris contract promised only if the presidential declaration is signed.
Up from 260 on Aug 24: the Governor's Sept 28 release says the state has distributed nearly $1 million in Household Needs Grants to more than 600 households (KXLY's count on Sept 23 was $959,250 to 633). The Sept 9 deadline this board carried did not hold; the state's page lists none and applications are open at app.brightharbor.com or through 211. Set 600 against more than 700 families who lost homes and the gap has narrowed, not closed. Separately, the state's Disaster Cash Assistance now runs to Oct 30, and about 300 households had connected with the Long Term Recovery Group by mid-August — a number LTRG has not updated.
The largest direct-to-household cash in this recovery, and it moved fast: about $2.5 million approved by Sept 21, projected past $3 million that week, 300-plus households paid by Sept 23, 696 applications — roughly four in five eligible households — and about 20 claims rejected as not legitimate. $10,000 per destroyed primary residence, owners and renters alike, no income test. Applications close Sunday, Oct 18. Around it, the older totals: $5.3 million committed through Innovia (Spokesman-Review, Aug 19 — Innovia has published no newer figure in six weeks); Catholic Charities 1,716 requests and about $190,000 in gift cards; the Salvation Army 1,030 gift and debit cards; Tzu Chi about $250,000 in debit cards to 300-plus households; nearly $700K in the city's H.O.M.E. fund (Aug 18); $102K from No-Li's community pour. Government money now open to households: the state's $1.5 million in grants, Goodwill's $1 million for rent and utilities, the Housing Authority's $475,000. The Red Cross, whose assistance closed Aug 30, never published a dollar or household total.
Honestly: nobody knows, and that is still the finding. No agency or organization has published a business-impact count or a business-loss dollar figure — not Greater Spokane Inc., which holds the intake data, not the county, the city, the Assessor or the Governor's federal request, which mentions “ranching and agricultural businesses” and no number. Oregon opened a formal business wildfire-loss survey in August for exactly this reason. Spokane has an intake form and no published count, and no working-capital loan product exists anywhere locally for a damaged business — U.S. SBA loans wait on the declaration, and the one business grant we listed, DoorDash's, never opened. If your business lost revenue, property, or staff hours (even outside the burn area), file a business assistance request so your loss counts.
The short version, two months on: the emergency phase is over, the state's relief package is in place and has been extended once (Proclamation 26-03.2, Aug 31), the IRS granted federal tax relief on Aug 31, and on Monday, Sept 28 the Governor finally submitted the Presidential major disaster declaration request — the step that unlocks FEMA Individual Assistance, U.S. SBA disaster loans and HUD relief — with a seven-week decision as the working estimate. Locally, the city passed its renter protection Sept 9, opened the $1 million in Commerce housing assistance through Goodwill on Sept 2, published a parcel-by-parcel damage dashboard and proposed a rebuild-rules package on Sept 15; the county contracted its $475,000 to the Housing Authority and cut rebuild inspection fees in half on Sept 22. Two things expire this week with no extension posted: the Insurance Commissioner's emergency order (Sept 30) and the city's emergency declaration (Oct 1). The SBA is tracking each step and will update this page the day they land.
None of these has happened yet, and together they represent nearly all of the direct federal money for rebuilding. After the 2023 Gray and Oregon Road fires, the major disaster declaration took roughly six months. This time the request took fifty-nine days to file; the decision is the next clock.
The gateway to real household aid: FEMA Individual Assistance grants, Disaster Unemployment Assistance, crisis counseling, legal aid, and the state debris contract. Update Sept 29: the request is in. The Governor did not know the timeline and pointed to December's flood request, which took about seven weeks — mid-November at the earliest. The White House meeting he and Rep. Baumgartner requested in August “hasn't happened”; the late-September D.C. trip this page had listed did not occur. If approved, FEMA pays 75% of Public Assistance costs and the state says it can begin recovery operations within days or weeks. Take the Worthy grant (Oct 18) and the state grant now.
Households cannot register until it is authorized under the declaration. The state's own page still says “Federal Individual Assistance is not currently available for applications.” The moment DisasterAssistance.gov opens for these fires, we will post it here.
Low-interest federal loans for homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofits — historically the largest source of rebuilding capital, and the only working-capital product a damaged Spokane business would have. They follow the FEMA declaration automatically. But the state did take the faster stand-alone route for Douglas County on Sept 18 and had loans open by Sept 22; it has not done so for Spokane. The SBA is asking the Governor's office why not both.
FHA foreclosure moratorium, rebuild mortgages, and eventually long-term CDBG-DR recovery funds — these follow the major declaration.
DNR geologists are surveying more than 100 sites below the scars for debris-flow risk; their report is “coming months” away, and no BAER report, NRCS Emergency Watershed Protection funding or flood guidance has been published by anyone. The first significant storm will arrive before the guidance does. The Spokane Conservation District's free site visits and its September recovery guide are the only open door (note Nov 1 is the date its cost-share projects must be finished).
The city's like-for-like, ADUs-first, GFC-waiver and fee-deferral provisions (Sept 15) await a Council vote; the Plan Commission endorsed them Sept 9. The city's emergency declaration must be renewed by Oct 1 or the renter defense lapses with it. The State Building Code Council decides whether pre-2015 homes may rebuild to the 2015 energy code (meets Oct 16 and Oct 30). The Governor's permit-fee-waiver amendment must actually be posted. Still missing: a coordinated structural-debris program — promised only as a state contract contingent on the federal declaration — and any published count of county permits or of lots actually cleared.