Firestorm Over Spokane

In the first weekend of August, a spark in the dry grass along a quiet Spokane roadside became one of the most destructive wildfire disasters in Washington state history.

Within hours, three fires - Old Trails, Autumn Lane, and Fairview - were burning simultaneously across Spokane County, driven by drought, record heat, and relentless wind. By the time the smoke cleared enough to count the damage, nearly 1,000 homes and structures lay in ruins, and almost 67,000 residents had been forced to flee with only what they could grab in minutes: photo albums, heirloom rings, pets, and each other.

Firestorm Over Spokane tells the full story of that catastrophic week - from the terrifying speed of the fires' growth, to the county-wide scramble to account for hundreds of missing residents, to the shocking arrest of a man investigators say confessed to setting not just this fire, but twenty-five others across the past year. It follows families like the Deatherages and the Wilsons as they weigh what to save and what to leave behind, firefighters battling flames that refused to slow even after dark, and a governor and congressional delegation racing to secure federal aid for a county pushed past its breaking point.

Drawing on court documents, official briefings, and firsthand accounts, journalist J. R. Kessler delivers a gripping, ground-level account of a disaster that was part natural catastrophe, part human failure, and part warning - a portrait of a region forced to confront what it means to live with fire season in the new American West.

A story of survival, loss, and a community's fight to rebuild - and a stark look at how close any of us may be to the next firestorm.