SPOKANE, Wash. — Officials overseeing the response to the Spokane-area wildfire complex on Monday described widespread devastation as crews continue battling the state’s most destructive wildfire by structures lost.
“I’ve been around … that is a war zone … when you look at the devastation and the damage … some of these folks may not recover,” Maj. Gen. Gent Welsh, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard, said after touring the burn area Sunday night.
Emergency officials said the three-fire Spokane complex, which includes the Old Trails, Fairview and Autumn Lane fires, has destroyed at least 700 structures, though those losses still need to be validated through aerial surveys…