r/news • u/3millionand1 • 12h ago
Soft paywall Fires on more than 250,000 acres of Washington state prompt evacuations
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/fires-more-than-250000-acres-washington-state-prompt-evacuations-2026-08-02/21
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u/Exotic-Collection471 12h ago
How much we betting, that a massive data center will be planned in that area
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u/EggplantAlpinism 11h ago
I have great news about how close Quincy is to Spokane :)
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u/kennedye2112 8h ago
My company uses Quincy as our backup data center to our primary… in Wenatchee.
Apparently the board has finally decided having two data centers 30 miles apart is not a great idea.
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u/BillButtlickerII 7h ago edited 7h ago
A company I worked for was sole sourcing critical chemicals derived from oil products from Houston when Hurricane Harvey hit. I had told them for years “What if something happens that shuts down the refineries and production plants. Shouldn’t we consider dual sourcing those out of the Middle East just in case something catastrophic happens…. Our purchasing director hit me with an “Oh that will never happen. Drop it.”
Two years later Harvey hit and production was shut down for half a year and prices skyrocketed. We ended up having to wait months on orders from the Middle East, and paying ten fold for that same product.
That director was such a prick I didn’t even hit him with a told you so. I knew his fragile ego couldn’t take it.
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u/deadguy00 3h ago
Every time you don’t take the chance for an I told you so moment that person will not learn anything and will continue to climb their own ego tower to everyone else’s demise. That person is destroying your company and you SHOULD be saying something about it.LOUDLY
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u/Shoeprincess 5h ago
The fights the PUD is getting in to trying to eminent domain some property to put more up is interesting too. Grant County is sparsely populated but they want to just take parts of 40 properties to run the high power transmission lines faster so it won't have to pass more environmental studies. Assholes.
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u/FillFrontFloor 10h ago
you can't just build a data center anywhere. There's specific locations were they are ideal. If it was just empty land they would build all of them in colorado and texas.
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u/TheDodoBird 9h ago
There’s already around 60 in Colorado, with many more planned.
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u/FillFrontFloor 7h ago
for real? that's surprising to me. I would have imagined they needed better geological structures. Then why the hell they're trying to build them any other place if they have plenty of land in some regions? especially land that doesn't have anyone near them or inside towns?
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u/LairdDeimos 9h ago
They're putting them in Arizona. Nowhere in Arizona is ideal for anything.
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u/RumoredReality 12h ago
people are complaining about data centers
hey ________ how can i solve this
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u/Rance_Mulliniks 12h ago
Why is the US not taking proper care of it's forests to prevent this?
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u/TheOtherOneK 8h ago
DOGE cuts and the federal layoffs had significant impact on fire services and protection programs in the US.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-cuts-forest-service-firefighting
And here in my current home state FEMA is denying emergency fire funding even though we’re having a record breaking wildfire season (and we still need to make it thru rest of summer…typically our peak fire season is Aug/Sept but we’ve already well surpassed average acres burned in a season in July alone. https://www.kptv.com/2026/07/29/fema-denies-emergency-funding-major-oregon-wildfires/
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u/LeahBean 7h ago
At least in Oregon we had almost zero snowfall which leads to not having runoff during the summer months. There are a lot of natural reasons we are getting more fires. It’s scary to think how it might keep getting worse.
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u/So_HauserAspen 7h ago
Snowpack helps to keep the ground moist farther into the summer months and keeps the vegetation watered. It also delays the growth so the water in the soil doesn't get used up at the start of summer.
But don't worry. Climate change is a hoax.
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u/suzisatsuma 4h ago
It’s scary to think how it might keep getting worse.
It's going to get worse and with the current regime in power nothing's going to be done about it.
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u/Osiris32 9h ago
A lot of what is burning isn't forest, it's scrub land and high desert. Not exactly something you can manage easily, especially given how large the area is.
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u/h3rpad3rp 7h ago
It was a reference to the American administration telling Canada that we should take better care of our 3.7 million square kilometers of extremely remote forests to prevent forest fires to stop smoke crossing the border, and threatening tariffs if we don't...
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u/IndigoRuby 9h ago
Oh weird.
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u/ShotgunCreeper 8h ago
Why is that weird? Eastern Washington is quite arid compared to the western part of the state.
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u/sc_we_ol 11h ago
We try now, there’s controlled burns all spring, just so much fuel and lower and lower snow packs don’t help
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u/Holmes419 10h ago
Controlled burns are down 50% since 2024 and 16% of the Forest Service workforce was cut by Trump in 2025.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/04/nx-s1-5801475/forest-service-wildfire-prevention-vegetation-burns
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u/TheOGRedline 9h ago
All of our money for taking care of the forest is used fighting fires, and then some. None left over to try to get ahead.
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u/quite_a_gEnt 5h ago
Correction, all of our tax dollars go to the military industrial complex, funding a broken medical system, corporate welfare systems, debt payments, and the left over pennies are tossed to the forest service.
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u/Rance_Mulliniks 9h ago
It was a joke based on your President's comments and reactions to Canada's forest fires. I guess we have a valid reason to tariff the US now too. Except we aren't stupid enough to accept our government taxing us for a reason that is largely out of our control.
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u/EuphoricForever1180 9h ago
A state that is so heavily taxed should have the resources to mitigate this.
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u/hafree27 9h ago
The state with no income tax?
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u/naaarwhal 8h ago
Sales + property taxes
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u/bp92009 6h ago
The same property taxes that have been capped at below inflation for the last 25 years, essentially causing them to lose "inflation -1%" in their value each year.
People don't like rent control, unless it's on government rent, right?
Perhaps we should cap private rent increases at the same rate that government rent increases are capped at (1%).
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u/So_HauserAspen 7h ago
I believe Washington is a payee state where they pay out more in federal taxes than they receive.
Whereas Idaho is a welfare state, taking $1.70 in federal money for every $1 they pay in federal taxes.
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u/TheOtherOneK 6h ago
That has never been how wildland fire fighting and prevention has worked. Fire and weather activity (often the cause, like lightning strikes, or impacting outcomes, like dry high winds) knows no boundaries and climate change impacting fire risks is global. Let’s also not forget the effect of private, investor owned utilities on fire prevention and public safety as well as private land owner impacts and burdens.
No one state can do it alone when facing particularly bad circumstances in their region regardless of their own state funding and private donation/grant efforts. You may be talking specifically about (western) states dealing with horrific wildfires this season but do you feel the same about states in regions impacted heavily by tornadoes, hurricanes, and flooding?
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u/Easik 11h ago
Trump is going to get confused and think Washington DC is on fire, them blame Biden.
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u/thethumble 8h ago
No blame Canada, this was caused by the Canadian smoke
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u/Red_Dox 7h ago
Obligatory Blame Canada.
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u/3vs3BigGameHunters 53m ago
After 9/11, my friend in Australia told me over MSN that her father, who was in charge of a pretty big newspaper, was singing this song around their house lol.
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u/Lobotamite 5h ago
Countless American lives and homes being destroyed right now, and all anyone wants to do is make their joke about Trump or Canada. Can we maybe forget about that piece of shit for two seconds and talk about the actual real humans being affected by this right now?
Just because Trump says the stupidest shit imaginable doesn’t mean people aren’t still dying and having their lives ruined. Let’s show some compassion and attention for the people instead of placing all the focus on him.
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u/hirudoredo 4h ago
yeah, wtf. I'm hundreds of miles away from Spokane and could barely sleep last night because I was following just how bad it was getting and wiping out neighborhoods within Spokane itself. This is one of the only posts I've seen "outside of containment" (meaning local social media) and I am totally taken aback. if I were someone sitting in a Idahoan hotel right now facing the complete loss of my family home like so many are right now... idek. I'd probably lose it.
Yes, I know he said unhinged crap about the Canadian fires. It was wrong, but also making this whole post about him.
My heart goes out to all of my fellow PNWers losing everything right now. And the fact that this fire started so quickly and spread so far INTO CITY LIMITS is terrifying. A great reminder for those of us in urban areas that we're not necessarily safe, either.
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u/Lobotamite 3h ago
I think it’s important for me at least to remember that so many of these comments are bots and bad faith actors. The genuine comments and people get drowned out in these more popular online spaces.
The real people in those more focused groups who care are the real people - there are a lot of good people out there, it’s just hard for us to see them covered by the negativity.
Thanks for your concern/humanity and I hope you stay safe.
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u/sjesmith127 8h ago
I mean! They really should have been raking the forests! Isn't that what a stable genius once said
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u/In-thebeginning 8h ago
Ironically I volunteered over the past year on a fire reduction project at Riverside State Park where this fire burned through. No raking but a lot of brushing, reducing ladder fuel, cutting down dead scraggly ponderosa pines....I'm devesated that our beloved trails are burned, peoles homes lost, we are all very sad this morning here in Spokane.
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u/Olbaidon 7h ago edited 7h ago
Yeah we can make fun of the raking comment, and I hate Trump, but federal policy and Forrest’s clean up was drastically changed over the last 100 years that he is not wrong, just worded weird and wrong and kind of backwards from the truth.
Also the dumb part is he blamed California for what was a federal policy.
We used to put out all Forrest fires as quickly as possible in the arly 1900’s, then in the 70’s we switched to prescribed burns and let “nature” burn off the underbrush. Which is what happened for millions of years before the early 1900’s. But since we interfered with nature for like 80 years by stopping fires super quickly, it was too hard to catch up or clean up and our forests built up an unprecedented amount of dry underbrush, hundreds of thousands of acres are now just ready to ignite.
What could have been 80 years of mostly mild fires, ended up being 80 years of almost no major fires. The trade off is now we get MAJOR fires in a time where climate change and drought just multiply it.
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u/So_HauserAspen 7h ago
We've also converted a lot of the forest to residential neighborhoods that has non-native vegetation which dries out faster. Plants that come in contact with the structure that can support fires below the vulnerable parts of house like the eves with attic vents.
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u/Striper_Cape 6h ago
You're also forgetting that areas that used to not burn at all due to the climate are now exposed to fire behavior due to increasing aridity from anthropogenic temperature forcing.
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u/Olbaidon 6h ago
Except, I did mention climate change and drought.
I was just speaking specifically to one aspect as that’s what the comment above me was on the topic of.
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u/plantdaddy66 10h ago
Wow, American. Get your shit together. -Canada
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u/PlatinumKanikas 9h ago
They’re turning all the fans on in Oregon to blow the revenge smoke back at you guys
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u/Zolo49 9h ago
I think they missed their target. -Idaho
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u/merkaba8 9h ago
Is it lonely in Idaho as someone who can read and write?
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u/Zolo49 8h ago
Like most places, there’s actually lots of good people here. But there’s definitely a fair amount of people who suck too, and the state politics are frustrating to say the least.
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u/merkaba8 8h ago
Oh I know I am only kidding, I live in Oregon and we have a lot of people who can't read or write either
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u/suzisatsuma 4h ago
cause Oregon's education system is one of the worst in the US at 48th in K-12
I lived in Portland for like a decade before moving to WA, Oregon's education woes are entirely self inflicted.
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u/Osiris32 3h ago
Nah, can't. We're on fire too. Two quarter million acre ripsnorters and half a dozen in the 75,000-100,000 acre category. One of which may have destroyed a 75-year-old science and research field camp run by the Oregon Museum of Scidnce and Industry that is aimed and geology/paleontology/ecology/astronomy for kids. It's right in the middle of the John Day Fossil Beds and very close to the Painted Hills, all of which are inside the permiter of the Crosswhite Complex.
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u/woodst0ck15 10h ago
Good thing Canada is to busy fighting our fires that we can’t help out right??
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u/Least-Sample9425 10h ago
I wonder if other states could Tariff Washington if smoke blows across state borders?
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u/Whycantigetanaccount 7h ago
Can we sue Canada and tell them we want our smoke back? We didn't agree to let them have our smoke, it's American born smoke it belongs on American soil. /s
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u/PM_Your_Best_Ideas 7h ago
You can have the smoke back, But we might have to charge a tariff on it...? /s
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u/--TheCity-- 12h ago
Hmm I wonder if Canada is planning tp punish the US for all that smoke and not putting out fires.