As we dive into this week’s Sunday Stills photo challenge, which is SMOKE or SMOKY, I want to thank all of you who reached out through your comments on my blog, sharing your kind concerns about the wildfire situation near where we live.
Despite being a few miles a way from the wildfires, we still endured smoky skies and poor air quality. Not only that, but through an App called Watch Duty, one can see the almost countless wildfires still plaguing the northwest, from Northern California, Oregon, Washington, east to Idaho and further north to British Columbia, Canada. ‘Tis the season.
I took screen shots this week from the Watch Duty app to show a perspective of the fire map. The first one shows an over view of our area. Our home is marked with the blue dot shown by the arrow.
The zoom out of the USA looks like it’s one giant fire. Welcome to the American West!
Please bear with me as I take you down a smoky road over the week-long struggle.
The featured image shows the onset of the Old Trails fire that ignited on Saturday, August 1st. I took this picture from the front door of my home looking Eastward. That was merely the beginning. Note that the smoke seen here is several miles away.
Within minutes, local neighborhoods were being evacuated with GO NOW level 3 urgency. Our family and other neighbors viewed TV and streaming broadcasts of “breaking news,” and watched in horror as images of homes going up in flames inundated us.
As the day progressed, my neighbor called to ask if he could borrow our travel trailer to house his daughter and their family. Five of them, plus three more relatives visiting, needed a place to stay. They were all evacuated from their homes, which thankfully never burned. We happily welcomed 6 people of three generations into our home and in the trailer.
As the fires continued, people gathered at our church on Sunday morning, which houses and manages the TumTum Food Pantry and the Clothing Closet. Rather than deliver a message, our Pastor asked the congregation to share their fears, concerns and blessings. In addition to items in the clothing closet, many folks, including myself donated much needed bedding and household items.
Other community organizations and individuals, including local shops and restaurants, rallied to procure donations. Even our local gym offered free showers to anyone who needed them.
“When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they’ll remember and be kind to someone else. And it’ll become like a wildfire.” – Whoopi Goldberg
On Monday, I needed to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy in our town (just 4 miles south of our home). Many roads were closed, except parts of our rural highway, and the skies were still full of smoke. We were lucky to have electricity at this point. As I drove down the hill into town, I was greeted with THIS!
I picked up my prescription, noting the highway just one block south was closed. I pulled into the Rosauers’ Grocery Store parking lot, my eyes full of tears, as the gravity of what I witnessed became a reality. I watched in awe as these helicopters scooped water out of nearby Lake Spokane and drop buckets of water onto the active flames just over the ridge to the east.
Within the span of three minutes, I counted 10 of these fire choppers dipping into the lake and circling the air back and forth like a coordinated aerial dance.
Would our beautiful green pine forests ever be the same again?
Views of the sky from our backyard during the week.
Another fire in Mead, about 10 miles east of Nine Mile Falls, also caused a lot of smoke. Some of our family members live close by and were ready to evacuate if needed.
Each day, we continued to watch the ongoing local newscasts and began to see the devastation caused by the wildfires. There were three total wildfires. The closest fire to us, named the Autumn Lane fire, actively burned on the other side of the lake, but managed to jump to our side of the lake and cause a bit of damage. The Old Trails fire was deliberately set by a former convicted felon who had serious anger issues. He was caught literally red-handed and immediately taken into custody.
The three blazes comprising the Spokane Complex ravaged nearly 10,000 acres, forced 65,000 residents to evacuate and spewed ash, smoke and toxins across the region. Spokane SOURCE
Miraculously, no human lives were lost.
A week later, we drove to downtown Spokane for a doctor’s appointment. The roads were open and of course the fires were 70% contained by then. Nothing prepares you when you see the actual devastation.
The Old Trails Fire that destroyed hundreds of homes in Spokane earlier this month also burned down a church near Riverside State Park. Riverside Real Life Church was just built in 2023, right along Nine Mile Road in northwest Spokane. SOURCE
“Really, for us, it really comes down to the community of people, because the building is not the church — the people make the building into a church.” – Pastor Kelly Armstrong, Riverside Real Life Church
This was taken along Hwy 291, about 7 minutes from where we live. You can see the scorched hillside and the pink fire retardant on the road. Amazing the trees are still green!
Staggering Facts:
A shout out of appreciation for the incredible fire fighters who fought valiantly through the week and beyond.
- 900 firefighters from the US West, including Alaska, were deployed along with 200 members of the Washington National Guard
- 2,000 personnel camped at the Spokane County fairgrounds during the incident
- The three component fires known as the Spokane Complex Fire (Autumn Lane, Old Trails, and Fairview) reached 97% containment.
- The complex burned nearly 10,000 acres and damaged or destroyed over 830 structures.
- Fire managers put cost of fighting Spokane fires at $30 million.
And that, my friends, is that. Our skies are now clear, with some convective activity weather causing mountain thunderstorms to our north and slightly cooler temperatures. A crazy two weeks.
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is simple to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives. Your original images reimagined with AI tools in post-editing are also welcome.
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently from mine.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
- I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
If you are participating in the photo challenge, I look forward to seeing how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.
Join me next week as we explore Summer Bugs in the Animal of the Month Challenge.
The themes for the rest of August and September are ready to view on my Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Page, which is updated monthly.
Sharing this week for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.
“All things, by immortal power, connected are; that thou canst stir a flower… without the troubling of a star.” – Francis X Thompson
© 2026 Terri Webster Schrandt | secondwindleisure.com. All rights reserved. All content on this blog is protected by copyright and may not be copied, reposted, or reblogged without written permission.
Second Wind Leisure Perspectives 
What is YOUR perspective? Please include your name if WP identifies you as “anonymous.