Major Pacific Northwest City Devastated By Massive Wildfires

More than 1,000 firefighters are scrambling to contain the massive wildfires that have burned hundreds of structures in Spokane County, Washington, and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes over the weekend.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said that the still-raging fires would go down in history as "the worst natural disaster our region has faced," as more than 5,300 acres burned before Sunday afternoon - and at that time, the fires were reportedly 0% contained despite firefighters' best efforts.

Roughly 67,000 residents were under evacuation orders and about 700 structures had been destroyed.

Gov. Bob Ferguson (D-WA) declared a state of emergency and said he spoke with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin about "how dire the situation is in Spokane and across our state." He declared a state of emergency and said they'd work on "additional requests for federal assistance," expressing optimism about a quick federal emergency declaration.

Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) called it "an unprecedented catastrophe for the Spokane area" while predicting bipartisan cooperation, saying "This is not Republicans and Democrats you're seeing before you."

Benjamin Cossel, spokesman for California's Incident Management Team 7, told the NYT the fires' proximity to homes made them a top priority, and warned "The possibility for things to go sideways if it gets established in that canyon is pretty high" - adding "there is nothing really there to stop it."

Two of the fires jumping the Spokane River and spreading toward a nearby canyon only made the situation more dangerous.