Fire Storm Similarities - Spokane, North Idaho News & Weather KHQ.com

Fire Storm Similarities

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by Katie Steiner, KHQ Reporter - bio | email

SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. - October 1991 brings back a flood of memories for Spokane County Fire District 9 Fire Chief Bob Anderson.

"We were running from fire to fire, from house to house doing what we could to save lives," Chief Anderson recalls. 

Anderson was the incident commander for all of the fires in the Spokane County in '91. He noticed similarities between this month and that October of 1991. 

"There is no question we have very dry fuels right now, that's very similar to 1991," Anderson said. 

Spokane hasn't seen a drop of rain since August 21st which is 45 days ago. That wasn't much a relief, we only got 13 hundredths of an inch of rain. Our last actual shower was 78 days ago...July 20th. Anderson said that's a problem.

"If we have fuels that are this dry, if we get an ignition, its going to go. And if we get some wind it's going to go far and fast. Folks really need to help us out," Anderson said. 

There is one difference from that October 21 years ago is the temperature. This October, Spokane has been much cooler.

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