SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane County Emergency Management and other local leaders are working with the state on a major disaster declaration that will ask the federal government for help recovering from the Spokane firestorm.
It’s a lengthy process, and there’s no guarantee that the federal government will step in and help, but local leaders say they are working with the state to get this done.
Spokane County Emergency Management says it has already sent numbers from the firestorm damage to the state’s Emergency Management Division, who is in contact with Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and Gov. Bob Ferguson.
“Things are moving through, which is why we’re cautiously optimistic,” said Chandra Fox, the deputy director of SCEM.
The latest numbers from the emergency management team showed 632 homes were destroyed in the three fires that made up the Spokane firestorm. They still estimate thousands suffered damage, but both numbers could be updated, if they find more.
“The state will put the packet together,” Fox said. “Their goal is to have their work done by the end of next week so that they can hand it off to the governor’s office.”
The county’s emergency management team is asking for two types of help: public and individual assistance.
If the public assistance gets approved, the federal government will give funds to the county and the city to help rebuild infrastructure. It could also be used to pay for the overtime in the fires for firefighters, police, and Sheriff deputies.
Also within the public assistance is approval for debris removal on private property, which would help homeowners.
If the individual assistance gets approved, those funds will go toward households to help with things that insurance does not pay for.
“Those are the funds for the replacement of items,” Fox said. “There are specific things that FEMA can provide through the individual assistance program.”
Three years ago, the state also submitted a major disaster declaration for the Gray and Oregon Road fires. The city of Medical Lake, and SCEM, says it took six months from the time the request was submitted, to receive federal assistance.
“We had gone through quite a bit of the recovery process before FEMA was mobilized to come,” said Medical Lake city administrator Sonny Weathers.
Despite the roughly 381 homes lost in the 2023 fires, the city of Medical Lake says the damage from the Gray and Oregon Road fires did not meet the threshold for public assistance. They only received individual assistance; however, the federal government was still able to assist with debris removal.
State leaders have until September 29 to complete the major disaster declaration and send it to the White House. In this formal document, it will also ask for help for six other counties and three tribal nations.
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