In the span of a month, firefighting costs for 20 wildfires burning across Washington have totalled $207 million, according to data from the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

The expenses will be split among local, state and federal agencies. But the number is telling: Those 20 fires, some of which are still burning, have cost more than two-thirds of what the Department of Natural Resources spent over the last state fiscal year battling wildfires.

The amount reflects spending between July and August on the Kaiser Canyon Fire, the Spokane fires and the Sinlahekin Fire, among others. It includes firefighting costs, such as crews and aircraft, and does not include disaster recovery expenses.

“We’re in a wildfire crisis fueled by drought and extreme weather,” said Michael Kelly, communications director at the Department of Natural Resources, the lead state agency on wildfire response.

More than 770,000 acres across Washington have burned in 2026 alone. That’s the third-highest acreage on record and the fire season is still months away from ending, Kelly said.

In the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, the Department of Natural Resources spent more than ever on wildfires at an estimated $304.8 million. This surpassed what the state budgeted by nearly $18 million.

To close that funding gap, which is also at its highest peak, the agency will request emergency funds through the federal government under what’s known as the Clarke-McNary Act. It will not have to pay that money back.

The last time the department requested funds from the federal emergency account was in 2024, for nearly $15 million.

At a time when the state is dealing with budget shortfalls, the Department of Natural Resources will likely ask for more wildfire funding next session. The governor’s budget proposal is slated to be released in December.

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

“We need to continue and deepen those investments,” Kelly said. “We can’t afford to take our foot off the gas because the wildfire crisis isn’t going to let up anytime soon.”

Aspen Ford covers environment and education for the Washington State Standard, which allows its stories to be republished under specific guidelines. The Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia with questions.

The private owners of the immigrant detention center in Tacoma said they'll soon be in talks with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to sell some of their detention facilities across the country to the feds.

It remains unclear whether those negotiations include the Northwest ICE Processing Center, which has been run by GEO Group since 2005. The company's recent 10-year contract to manage the center expired in 2025. GEO Group's founder told investors they aim to wrap up pricing negotiations of any sales as soon as late September.

"There's a mutual interest by us and ICE that this process hopefully be completed by the end of this quarter," said George Zoley, chairman, CEO, and founder of GEO Group, during an investor call.

Back in July ICE issued a "Request for Information" looking to purchase turn-key detention facilities in several states, including in Washington near Seattle. The three other sites where ICE is looking to buy a facility line up with the centers GEO Group owns and operates near those locations.

ICE bought a facility similar to the Tacoma ICE center in California owned by Core Civic for nearly $500 million earlier this month.

"The potential sale of multiple facilities to ICE could represent a significant liquidity and shareholder value-enhancing event for our company," Zoley said.

U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (D-Washington), whose district includes the Tacoma facility, said this is part of a greater plan by President Donald Trump and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to make CEOs like Zoley richer. Zoley, and GEO Group, donated heavily to Trump's reelection campaign.

"Nothing about this cruel immigration agenda makes us safer or makes our lives more affordable," Randall said. "My neighbors… want a future where our immigrant neighbors aren't terrorized in our streets, where they can safely raise their kids, and afford gas, groceries, and healthcare."

ICE declined to say whether they intend to buy the Tacoma facility and GEO Group has not said they are looking to sell it.

But records show the Tacoma immigrant lockup fits the type of facility ICE is looking to buy. One of the stipulations is that the turn-key facility should be within 30 miles of ICE's Seattle office in Tukwila, which the Tacoma facility is. The ICE request also requires that the detention center near Seattle have at least 1,500 beds. The Tacoma center has 1,575 beds.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Time magazine that local government intervention is getting in the way of keeping these privately run immigrant detention facilities financially operational. Zoley has said federal ownership would be a way to avoid oversight from state governments.

Critics and immigrant advocates call that a strategy to sidestep attempts by local and state governments to shore up already weak federal accountability and transparency practices. A report from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights calls the current accountability process managed by the feds "Compliance Theater."

"As we watch the federal government use the billions of dollars they received from Congress to buy these facilities, we're seeing both a decrease in accountability and oversight," said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council. "It allows them to sidestep efforts that states have been leading to push back, and it can mean increased enforcement in the areas where they've purchased facilities if they're expanding them to include space for immigration detention."

Gupta said Congress needs to pass a bill that makes getting legal status in the U.S. clearer and more accessible to avoid the human and constitutional rights violations created by the president's mass detention and deportation efforts.

While GEO Group maintains that it would continue running day-to-day operations under potential federal ownership, documents detailing ICE's purchase of a Seattle-area facility say "federal supremacy" rules would shield them from local or state government oversight.

"Applicable or more stringent state or local laws or regulations shall not apply to the performance under this contract when they would directly or indirectly regulate, dictate, or control the contractor's performance under these standards," one of the documents states.

The Washington Department of Health is one of the state agencies pressing for accountability and oversight. Health officials have been blocked repeatedly from inspecting the GEO Group-run Tacoma ICE center, despite their wins in federal court after suing to inspect it.

Health officials said state law allows them to conduct inspections, regardless of whether the feds buy the facility.

"The Tacoma facility does not sit on a federal enclave, so state laws still apply," said the health department's Kara Kostanich. "Even if GEO sold the property to ICE, it would maintain its contract as the operator of the facility, so it would still be subject to the duties of [state laws]."

Father Bryan Pham, a senior lecturer at Gonzaga Law School and an advocate investor with GEO Group, agreed with Kostanich's assessment.

"We teach our students this," said Pham, who invests in GEO Group as the USA West Jesuit Province liaison for Responsible Investment. "When it comes to health issues, that falls under the state mandate."

Pham said he, like many others, is concerned about human rights violations at the Tacoma facility and post deportation — and has struggled to bring in a third party to inspect conditions at the facility.

The concerns are twofold. One involves GEO Group allegedly aiding and abetting the federal government in violating federal court orders, due process rights, and sending deportees to a prison outside of U.S. jurisdiction where they could face torture. The other concern is the reportedly poor and small portioning of food, sanitation, coercive behavior by ICE officials, and poor dental and medical care in the Tacoma facility. Much of the latter has been the subject of multiple hunger strikes at the facility.

After a recent rejection for an investor motion, Pham said he's now beginning talks with GEO Group to address those concerns.

In the earnings call to investors, GEO Chairman Zoley detailed the Trump administration's future blueprint to implement mass detention and deportation across the U.S.

"They wanna be in fewer, larger facilities with a normal detention capacity of about 100,000, not including maybe a lot of these little jails, which are just feeder locations to the main facilities that they wanna have," Zoley said.

ICE issued another Request for Proposals to build new secure housing units on pre-existing ICE properties like in Texas and Arizona last month, Gupta said.

"That is an example of ICE taking what's really supposed to be a center where people get stamped for paperwork and move on to other facilities or to other kinds of monitoring, and turning those processing centers into actual carceral facilities, which really underscores their desperation to expand beds and space as quickly as possible," she said.

Several cases show that federal immigration enforcement officials have been pushing the boundaries of their short-term processing facilities in Washington state.

Last year a family was held in a windowless federal immigration processing facility in Blaine for four weeks. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Washington) has raised questions about ICE's Ferndale office over its long-term detention practices. Both facilities typically are only meant to hold people for a short amount of time.

The family held in Blaine is now being represented by the Washington ACLU in a lawsuit.

"Federal law enforcement are committing civil rights violations at a scale without precedent in our nation's recent history, and with the support of an administration that encourages violence and disregard for the law," the ACLU wrote in a statement announcing dozens of lawsuits that span 17 states. Those suits include six claims on behalf of people who were held in ICE detention in Washington state.

Copyright 2026 KUOW

When two different wildfires threatened Dave Kokot's house in Spokane, Wash., earlier this month, he and his family packed up keepsakes as they prepared to leave. Kokot was less worried about the house itself. He knew he'd given it the best possible chance of surviving the flames.

"You don't know how the house would go through a fire, but I think ours would have done fine," Kokot says.

The siding on Kokot's house is made of fire-resistant materials, instead of wood. He'd cleared the flammable vegetation around the perimeter and made sure tree limbs weren't touching his home. Research shows those precautions help houses resist the onslaught of tiny, burning embers carried by the wind, the main reason wildfires spread so rapidly in extreme conditions.

Kokot made those preparations because he spent his career thinking about wildfire safety, mostly as a fire protection engineer at the Spokane Fire Department. Recently, he's been pushing Washington state regulators to make those preparations mandatory for residents in areas at high risk of burning.

Washington has been developing new wildfire safety regulations for several years, including building codes for homes constructed in risky areas and rules for managing plants and vegetation. But restrictions that affect people's homes and gardens can be unpopular. After public pushback, state legislators backtracked and repealed some of the requirements.

Other Western states have also struggled to pass wildfire regulations affecting homeowners' properties. While flood risk is managed by the federal government, wildfire regulations are up to state and local governments. The result is a patchwork of rules.

"It's up to the political will of a community to adopt a building code to address wildfire," says Ryan Maye Handy, who works on community wildfire planning at Headwaters Economics, a land use think tank. "What we're increasingly seeing is many different interpretations of how to reduce that risk. It is literally all over the map."

Washington rewrites its wildfire rules

In Spokane, dry conditions and extreme weather set the stage for the explosive wildfires in August. Like much of the Western U.S., eastern Washington is in drought after a winter with low precipitation. In the days leading up to the fires, forecasters warned of a dangerous mix of conditions: gusty winds, low humidity and high temperatures. More than 800 homes and structures were destroyed.

"This was a huge part of our city and a lot of people in the city thought: We're never going to have a fire here, it's never going to come to us and we don't have to worry about this," Kokot says.

Understanding wildfire risk can be challenging in many Western states. For floods, the federal government releases national maps showing which places are at risk of inundation. Wildfire mapping is left to the states, which involves using complex computer models to determine the chances of a fire based on vegetation, terrain and fire behavior.

In 2023, Washington building code officials gathered public feedback on the state's new wildfire hazard maps and regulations. In areas mapped as at-risk, newly constructed homes would be required to have fire-resistant roofs, siding and other measures. Homeowners would also be required to manage flammable vegetation to create defensible space, like making sure tree branches are 10 feet from a house or structure.

In a series of public hearings, some conservation groups pushed back, saying the vegetation rules would go against regional goals to increase the urban tree canopy and provide shade that would cool buildings during heat waves. Others said the wildfire maps were overly broad and didn't accurately reflect the real risk.

"Our greatest concern at Audubon is preserving bird habitat," testified Eric Seibel on behalf of the Tahoma Audubon Society, a wildlife conservation group now known as the Tahoma Bird Alliance. "I'm concerned that trees, which are our best defense against climate change, will be destroyed en masse if the provisions of the code pass."

In 2024, Washington passed a bill ordering state regulators to produce new wildfire hazard maps, with fewer rules that would be enforced. New construction would still be required to have fire-resistant roofs and siding, but no vegetation management would be required by homeowners.

"That got the fire service pretty concerned, because that's our primary protection," Kokot says. It's safer for firefighters to defend a burning structure when there's less vegetation directly next to it.

Washington state officials say the new wildfire maps will be released in December. The maps will now account for past wildfire history, which they say will more accurately show which areas are most at risk.

"It's trying to make sure that people are smart, building in those areas," says Angie Lane, assistant division manager with Washington's Department of Natural Resources, who is working on the new wildfire maps. "When you're starting fresh, it's easier to go ahead and prepare for all of that while you're building."

A patchwork of Western wildfire regulations

Oregon faced similar pushback while developing its wildfire regulations. Some residents were concerned that if their home was designated as high risk by the state, insurance companies would cancel their policies. Misinformation about the extent of vegetation restrictions also spread online.

Home insurance cancellations have increased rapidly in the Western U.S. as wildfires have become increasingly expensive. But insurance companies base decisions on their own maps, developed with much more granular and comprehensive data. Oregon even passed a law in 2023 banning insurance companies from using state wildfire maps.

"Insurers have their own proprietary maps that are quite sophisticated," Handy of Headwaters Economics says. "We know insurers are mapping wildfire risk already and the state maps are in some senses just catching up to that."

As a result of public pushback, Oregon repealed its wildfire rules last year.

Building codes for housing in wildfire-prone areas were pioneered by California. For almost 20 years, the state has required fire-resistant construction standards. Fire agencies conduct home inspections for vegetation and defensible space in many high-risk areas. The state is currently considering even more stringent vegetation rules, limiting how much greenery can be within five feet of a structure — what's known as "zone zero."

In Colorado, an effort to develop wildfire building codes was defeated more than a decade ago, after pushback from the local building and real estate industry. That changed after the destructive Marshall Fire in 2021. The state now has new rules on building codes and vegetation. Utah also recently passed its own rules.

Still, a number of Western states don't have statewide wildfire rules and codes, or even maps identifying high risk areas. Handy says that leaves many areas vulnerable, given that wildfires are becoming increasingly destructive as the climate gets hotter.

"One of the best ways to get everyone on the same playing field is a wildfire building code," Handy says. "We know now, more so than we knew 10 years ago, that regulating what we call the 'built environment' to reduce wildfire risk is extremely effective."

In Spokane, Kokot feels lucky that the fires were contained before they reached his house. The damage in his community, he says, shows how wildfires have changed, becoming larger and more frequent.

"We can't be complacent about the fires," Kokot says. "We have to predict that there's a possibility it could happen. We have to plan for it."

Copyright 2026 NPR

At 2 p.m. on Aug. 1, Haidee Solis' children were playing outside in the yard when she went to check on them and noticed smoke moving quickly toward their Spokane home.

Solis, who owns Los Habaneros, a Mexican restaurant in the city, remembered a customer had once shared an app that tracked nearby fires. She opened it and saw the fire had jumped to just blocks away from her house.

She and her husband quickly gathered their three-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, grabbed a handful of clothes and packed two photos of the kids.

They were trapped in traffic with a nearly empty tank of gas. They could see the smoke roiling behind them, and then, Solis said:

"Las casas de enfrente empezaron a explotar," describing in Spanish how the houses in front of them "started to explode."

As they drove away, Solis held onto hope that their home would be spared. But when she returned the next day, she found everything they owned had been reduced to ash, except for a coffee mug buried beneath piles of soot and debris.

Theirs was among hundreds of homes — more than 850 buildings in the Spokane area — to burn down in a series of fires. As Solis and her husband figure out what's next, access to emergency information in Spanish has been critical for them. Community organizations, from a local radio program to aid groups, are stepping in to fill that role, providing resources and support to families navigating the crisis.

City officials say they are providing information in languages other than English, but inside the studios of a small community radio station, one program — the only broadcast of its kind within a 135-mile radius — has become a lifeline for Spanish-speaking residents impacted by the fires.

El Puente

Last week during a live show at KYRS Thin Air Community Radio, the phone rang mid-broadcast.

Thirty minutes into his live radio show, the host picked up.

"¿Rafa Zamora, con quién hablo?"

It was another caller looking for vital emergency information in Spanish. Rafael Zamora listened briefly, before handing the phone to his co-host, Samantha Peralta, seconds before he went live again.

"We need and deserve to be informed about everything that is happening — not just at the local, but at the state, or perhaps national level — in our own language," Zamora said. "Because otherwise it is only available in English."

Since the fires broke out, Zamora has tripled the airtime for the show, El Puente: La Voz Latina, or in English, "The Bridge: The Latino Voice." He has hosted the Spanish-language program since the pandemic years and he estimated about 4,500 regular listeners tune in, a number that's likely climbed as evacuation orders continued for more than a week and residents searched for critical updates in a language they understand.

"Our program can be heard in Spokane, north of here in Colville, and even down south, 40 miles from Walla Walla," he said.

About 8% of Spokane County's population speaks a language other than English at home, U.S. Census data show. As the need for information grows, Jerrall Haynes, director of the City of Spokane's Office of Civil Rights, Equity and Inclusion, said the city has translated emergency information on its website into Spanish and more than 100 other languages, updating those pages daily to keep residents informed as the situation changes.

But Haynes also said community organizations have played an essential role in reaching residents directly.

During air breaks, Zamora and Peralta quickly discuss and sort through new information and updates to share with listeners. Then, they put on their headphones and go live again, riffing off each other.

Zamora said he's been working closely with local nonprofit organizations supporting Latino, immigrant and other underserved communities. The host has directed people to different resources from groups like Latinos en Spokane, Mujeres in Action and Nuestras Raíces Community Center.

'Our home is us'

At the Nuestras Raíces office in a warehouse near downtown Spokane, tables are lined up with fuzzy blankets, diapers, N95 masks and other necessities for those who have had to evacuate or lost their homes.

Isabel Mazcot, the organization's operations manager, says 17 Latino families had stopped by so far seeking assistance, including food, clothing and counseling services.

She says the organization's Facebook Live updates help keep residents informed in Spanish.

"One mom came in with her six-month baby the very first hour that we opened since we went live on Facebook," she said. "She lost everything. She needed some diapers and we were able to give that."

After her family's rental home burned down, Solis' was one of the families that stopped by Nuestras Raíces to get help. They've been staying at different places, bouncing between open properties owned by their former landlord.

Solis said their days are too busy to dwell on what's happened — running their restaurant and trying to give her kids a sense of normalcy, like keeping a routine dental appointment.

It's at night, when she finally has a moment to sit with her thoughts, that the reality of losing their home sinks in.

"I think the nights are the hardest because that's when I wish I could go back to my house, but I can't. There's no going back anymore," she said.

The house was home for her husband, their kids and Solis' mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in April. Solis is worried about keeping her as comfortable as possible when she starts radiation treatments this month.

"I told my mom, 'Mom, you're sick, and you have to start your treatments. You need a place where you can be comfortable because the treatment you're going through is exhausting," Solis said. "But she has taught me that being strong is the only option we have right now."

Through it all, Solis said access to information has become just as important as access to resources. She has relied on updates from Zamora's radio show and his Facebook page, as well as Nuestras Raíces, which has helped connect her to a counselor.

She said she wanted support in helping her children understand what happened, and processing losing their home.

"We had to go to therapy to figure out how to explain it to them because they're so young," Solis said. "But the therapist explained that, even though they're young, we have to talk to them and tell them, 'You know what? Now, our home is us.'"

This story was reported in partnership with the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington, including Spokane Public Radio.

Copyright 2026 NWNews

On a typical day, Alaska Airlines operates roughly 1,500 flights, most of them guided by a team of dispatchers on the sixth floor of an office building near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport known as "The Hub."

The dispatchers sit in a big open room, surrounded by as many as five flat-screen monitors that display real-time information on air traffic, weather, upper-level wind patterns and more.

It's a lot to process. But these dispatchers are getting some help from a software tool called Flyways AI.

"It ingests all that information," said Alek Mead, a manager in Alaska's Network Operations Center, "and it really kind of puts us all together in a nice little package for the dispatcher to look at, take some options, maybe play around with some different ideas, and then pick the most efficient and the safest route."

When Alaska wanted to optimize its operations, it turned to a small startup called Air Space Intelligence. Now the Federal Aviation Administration has tapped the same company to carry out a major reboot of the entire U.S. airspace.

The FAA wants to use technology — including artificial intelligence — to make the nation's airspace more efficient. And Flyways offers a glimpse of how that might look in practice.

Alaska was the first airline to start using the Flyways system back in 2021 to do things that would be challenging, if not impossible, for a human dispatcher working alone.

"It doesn't decide the route or waypoints that a dispatcher uses to get an airplane from A to B, but it does help provide suggestions that might be more efficient," explained Capt. Bret Peyton, the managing director of Alaska's network operations control. "That's where Flyways is really excelling for us."

Alaska says it's saving tens of thousands of hours in the air and roughly a million gallons of fuel per year because of Flyways.

The system works by basically crunching data on air traffic, wind, weather and other factors to anticipate what is going to happen during flight before it does.

"It's actually a really fundamental change, a massive behavior change," said Phillip Buckendorf, the co-founder and CEO of Air Space Intelligence, the company that built Flyways, in an interview on the podcast Crossing the Valley last year.

Buckendorf says his company worked closely with Alaska to build Flyways from the ground up. The company has since expanded to work with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, as well as the U.S. Army and Air Force.

"One of the hardest things is we're dealing with users that have basically made decisions against static displays for like 10, 20 years of their career. And so now they basically make a decision against a predictive picture," Buckendorf said.

Federal regulators are betting that predictive analytics can make the entire U.S. airspace work better, too.

"I think we've got a real opportunity to do something transformational with AI," said Bryan Bedford, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, at an industry conference in May.

Bedford says the U.S. airspace is safe today because air traffic controllers make sure planes are separated from each other at every stage of their journey. But he says the current system is not as efficient as it could be.

"What we're seeing is a system that is woefully unorganized," Bedford said. "We don't have in any of our facilities the ability to see the entire national airspace picture in a unified way."

Bedford says predictive analytics can help prevent bottlenecks and congestion before they happen, with relatively small adjustments to schedules and routes.

The FAA is so convinced that it recently announced an $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence to modernize the nation's airspace. The company is tasked with building what the agency is calling the SMART system, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories.

It's part of the Trump administration's ambitious push to deliver a Brand New Air Traffic Control System. FAA officials say the goal is to help air traffic controllers, not replace them.

But skeptics wonder if the technology can scale up from helping airline dispatchers to optimizing the entire U.S. airspace, which is the busiest and most complex in the world.

Bret Peyton at Alaska Airlines says dispatchers there were skeptical, too.

"It took a while for us to convince the dispatch group that it is what we say it is, which is a decision-making aid, and not a tool that's going to run rogue and make weird decisions for the dispatcher," Peyton said. "And it happened relatively quickly once dispatchers saw their true results that were pretty immediate."

KNKX's Izzy Ross contributed reporting from Seattle.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Top brass from Washington State Ferries gathered Wednesday at a shipyard in Panama City, Florida, for a maritime ceremony that has been all too rare lately for the agency. They celebrated the cutting of the first steel for a new boat, the first of three new hybrid-electric ferries.

The state ferry system urgently needs new vessels to replace aging ferries that are past or very near retirement age. This is the first new ferryboat for the fleet to enter construction in more than a decade. Still, the cheaper out-of-state assembly work is generating ongoing static back home.

“Today’s steel cutting makes the future of Washington State Ferries tangible and marks a major milestone for our entire region,” ferries chief Steve Nevey said at Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s shipyard. “Washington is making a long-term investment in reliable ferry service and a modern, sustainable fleet.”

Nevey concluded his remarks by cheerfully giving the command, “Let’s cut steel!” That was the signal to a shipyard worker off to the side to slice into a heavy steel plate destined for the hull. The dignitaries watched from behind a yellow line as sparks flew. It was the maritime equivalent of a groundbreaking.

Gov. Bob Ferguson had planned to join the event in the Florida Panhandle, underscoring the project’s importance. However, the governor canceled his trip because of the unfolding wildfire disaster in eastern Washington.

The governor’s office on Wednesday did announce the state would exercise its purchase option for a third hybrid ferry from Eastern Shipbuilding on top of the first two ordered in 2025. This was no surprise given the ferry system’s needs. The option clause provided for an early exit in case the ferry system lost confidence in its new shipyard partner.

“In the past decade, we lost four ferries to retirement. Today signifies a critical step in rebuilding our fleet with modern vessels that will allow us to provide more dependable service,” Ferguson said in a press release that recounted multiple signs of improvement in ferry service that has been strained since the pandemic by canceled sailings and crew shortages.

The anticipated delivery date for the first new plug-in ferry, to be named the Wishkah, remains four years away in summer 2030. Eastern Shipbuilding is expected to deliver the second and third ferries of the same design in 2031 and 2032.

Eastern Shipbuilding will assemble the ferry in a modular production process on dry land and then slide the completed vessel into Florida’s St. Andrew’s Bay. The ferries will have capacity for 160 cars and 1,500 passengers. They are designed to run on rechargeable battery power most of the time.

“Eastern Shipbuilding Group is proud to begin construction on these vessels and to partner with Washington State Ferries on one of the most important ferry modernization programs in the country,” said Joey D’Isernia, the company’s CEO.

Ferry riders pleased to see progress, but still unsettled

Regular ferry riders expressed happiness about the start of vessel construction, but some are still worried about the future of the state ferry system.

“There’s been a lot of discouraging news in the last number of years. So, it’s great to see some good news and the fact that this is actually happening,” said Lopez Islander Ken Burtness, a retired ferry captain.

He said this week’s warm feelings are tempered with anxiety about getting through the years-long interim until new ferryboats arrive in sufficient numbers to shore up the state’s aging fleet.

“One new ferry a year isn’t, I don’t believe, going to get Washington State Ferries out of the hole,” Burtness said. “We need to be building two ferries a year.”

In an analytical essay, Burtness said the strained ferry system is headed into “a certain crisis” because some of its oldest ferries are bound to conk out before replacements arrive. To head off such a scenario, Washington State Ferries and the governor asked the Legislature for money to extend the lives of the aging boats. Lawmakers granted $28 million extra for vessel preservation earlier this year.

The advocacy group Restore our Ferries raised similar themes as Burtness in an email. Group members, led by Duncan Chalmers of suburban Seattle, noted that the ferries in the state fleet average 35 years old and five are over 50 years old.

Wednesday was “a good start, but the state badly needs more ferries,” Chalmers and fellow group members wrote. They urged consideration of “creative interim solutions like private ships, BC Ferries partnership, smaller ships and/or less frequent sailings, new funding models… etc.”

The Florida-built boats

This is the first time in more than 50 years that Washington state ordered new ferries from an out-of-state shipyard. Only two shipyards nationwide competed for this ferry construction contract. Eastern Shipbuilding’s bid was more than 30% cheaper than a competing bid from Nichols Brothers Boat Builders of Whidbey Island.

The $715 million contract with non-union Eastern Shipbuilding includes delivery of each new ferry via the Panama Canal. Whether the ferries will be towed from Florida to Puget Sound (the shipyard’s preference) or be carried on the deck of a specialized large transporter ship (WSF’s more costly preference) remains under negotiation.

On the new ferries, the center of the ship’s hold will be packed with racks of water-cooled rechargeable batteries so each ferry can sail fully on electric power most of the time. The engine room will also feature twin diesel generators as a backup source of propulsion.

Assuming they use green electricity to recharge at the terminals, the new ferries should achieve large reductions in fuel consumption and air pollution.

Washington State Ferries plans to assign the first two plug-in ferries to the Mukilteo-Clinton route. WSF previously explained that the short route lends itself well to electrification because it offers frequent recharging opportunities.

Figuring out how to pay for more new ferries

Meanwhile, back in Washington state, a bipartisan workgroup of legislators has started meeting with WSF and hired marine consultants to hash out how to pay for additional new ferries. The ferry system’s electrification plan calls for 13 more new ferries by 2040 in addition to the three already on order.

The long-range plan is to grow the state ferry fleet from the 21 vessels on hand today to as many as 26 eventually, after accounting for retirements. That would mean that the state could have one or two reserve vessels available to fill in for unexpected breakdowns, which would reduce sailing cancellations that happen all too frequently now. It could also pave the way for restoration of the long-suspended Anacortes-Sidney international route.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers rejected a proposal from Ferguson to borrow $1 billion on the bond market to pay for new ferries number four through six. Instead, the state House and Senate transportation leaders chartered the interim workgroup to brainstorm how to scrape together the money for a “sustainable” long-term ferry construction program.

“There’s a lot of consternation about where these vessels are built and how they’re constructed,” said state Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, touching on the list of ferry procurement hangups. “What are their capabilities… What propulsion system or fuel mix they have. So, we need to answer those questions with enough detail that we can make a decision and move forward.”

The supplemental transportation budget signed by the governor at the end of March set a Dec. 15, 2026, deadline for the ferry workgroup to report its findings and recommendations. The workgroup is meeting behind closed doors, but publishes the presentations it receives and meeting agendas on delay at the Joint Transportation Committee website.

“The fact that we’re all talking now is really useful and important,” Liias said. “As the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, I would like the Legislature to take action at least on (ordering) vessels four through six in 2027.”

Tom Banse covers government and public policy for the Washington State Standard, which allows its stories to be republished under specific guidelines. The Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia with questions.

Updated August 8, 2026 at 2:00 AM PDT

SPOKANE, Wash. - People across this metropolitan area of more than a half a million people are reeling from out-of-control wildfires that destroyed whole neighborhoods and forced the evacuation of an estimated 65,000 people.

But as emergency responders take stock of the damage, there's a prevailing sense the disaster could have been far worse. While fire officials estimate more than 800 structures have been lost across Spokane County, there have been no reported deaths.

"People were able to get out within a reasonable amount of time, and we have not to this day learned of any deaths or injuries related to the evacuations or the fires," Sarah Nuss, the city's director of emergency management said this week.

That's notable when compared to other recent destructive urban wildfires.

In January 2025, more than 30 people died in the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County. On Maui in 2023, more than a 100 people were killed in the Lahaina fires. And two people died in the massive Marshall Fire near Boulder, Colorado in late 2021.

All were urban firestorms that ignited in wildlands but spread into a city where homes, not forests, became the fuel for rapid spread.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels pointed to the success of the city's evacuation, which included not only whole neighborhoods, but also nursing homes, a dementia care center and the entire Veterans Affairs hospital campus.

"If you think about what that entails, the fact that we were able to get people out of those areas within several hours in an active fire is pretty incredible," Nowels said.

Spokane fires followed extreme wildfire danger warning

When the Old Trails Fire jumped the Spokane River on Saturday and raced into the tree-filled city, it burned right up to a park behind Terry and Warren Clark's house. They could see the fire from their deck as they evacuated and helped their 91-year-old neighbor escape.

They had about an hour's notice to pack up and leave.

"As you can see, that's a wooded area right behind our house, so we butt up to all of the fuel," Warren Clark told NPR this week, as the couple visited their street where houses were destroyed, but theirs was spared.

The Clarks live in the middle of what fire officials call the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI, where forests meet densely populated - and in Spokane's case - long established neighborhoods.

No wildfire is the same, and it is not possible to pinpoint why lives were spared so far in the recent Spokane fires. But experts say jurisdictions across the West are getting better about coordinating during fires and learning from mistakes of the past.

Hugh Safford, an environmental science professor at the University of California at Davis and former fire ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, said forecasting also has improved in the last 10 years.

"When you know there's a big red flag warning, if there are resources available, i.e., there are trucks and firefighters who are not assigned to an active event, they'll send them up there and they'll be ready," Safford said.

In Spokane, warnings of extreme heat and winds that could fuel large dangerous wildfires were widely publicized in advance.

Officials long worried about this kind of fire

The inland Northwest is coming off one of its warmest and driest winters on record. But in Spokane, local leaders have been worried about this very kind of fire for years, and tried to prepare and get the word out.

"We've been warning about this," said Nuss, the city's emergency management director. "Wildfires have just been increasing over the past decade."

Nuss said climate change has hit home in the form of longer and hotter summers and far less rainfall and winter snow. "And we are building into the wildland urban interface," she added.

In the last year, Nuss's office led two mass evacuation drills with hundreds of residents in fire prone neighborhoods built into dense stands of old growth pine. One had been scheduled for next spring in the same residential areas where the Old Trails fire continues to burn.

Nuss said she didn't have the budget to do more and or do it sooner. But she thinks the two previous drills may have taught officials and residents how to better avoid traffic bottlenecks that can turn deadly.

Wildland firefighting is getting more dangerous 

More fire and emergency response data from a rise in urban wildfires has given cities and first responders better information to manage wildfire crises in the moment.

But fire experts say little has been done to address the bigger picture, including rapid development into wildlands, a century or more of suppressing natural wildfires that reduce fuel fuel in forests and brush lands, and a rise in C02 gasses causing the climate to heat to record levels.

All of this is making the job of wildland firefighting more dangerous. Five firefighters have died battling wildfires in the past six weeks.

Jose Ibarra, a crew boss trainee from Salem, Oregon, helping to fight the fires in Spokane this week, said a lot of the wildland fires he fights these days are in towns, not forests.

"Still a lotta work here," he said, as he doused hot spots near where the Old Trails Fired leveled neighborhoods. "Don't want it jumping the line and causing more damage to homes."

One wind gust could cause a flare up.

Pointing to a smoldering tree, Ibarra said, "You can see right now … that stump is smoking, that's why we're here."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Updated August 5, 2026 at 12:20 PM PDT

SPOKANE, Wash. — The man who allegedly started one of the current wildfires in Washington state's second-largest city made his first court appearance on Tuesday.

Aaron Farinacci, a 37-year-old convicted felon, has been charged with first-degree arson. He is accused of "knowingly and maliciously" causing the Old Trails Fire, the most destructive of the three blazes burning in and around Spokane, a city of 230,000 people in eastern Washington.

Farinacci was arrested on Monday and appeared in court virtually from jail on Tuesday. His bail has been set at $1 million and his next court date is scheduled for Thursday.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said a tip from a citizen led investigators to detain a suspect early in the investigation. According to court documents, a witness described seeing "a bald white male wearing a backpack and a green shirt" near a tree line in Spokane on Saturday afternoon — which is also when the wildfire began. The witness added that the suspect appeared "nervous."

The man, identified as Farinacci, was questioned and released. He was arrested again later by major crimes detectives and investigators as more details emerged during the investigation, Nowels said in a press conference on Monday night.

Nowels said authorities believe Farinacci used matches or a lighter to start the fire. According to court documents, authorities found a pack of cigarettes, a butane lighter and a used box of "rain ready, heavy duty waterproof matches" inside Farinacci's fanny pack. The suspect denied starting the fire, telling officers that he used the matches to light his cigarette, the documents said. 

About 14 years ago, Farinacci pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in Arizona, according to court records reviewed by NPR. The Associated Press reported that Farinacci shot and killed his father after a heated argument when he was 21.

The cause of the fires is still under investigation, according to Spokane authorities. 

Over the past few days, the wildfires in Spokane have been fueled by high winds, temperatures and dry weather. Since last weekend, the wildfires have displaced 65,000 people, destroyed some 700 buildings and burned through 10,000 acres of land.

They have also forced the evacuation of businesses, the region's Veterans Affairs hospital campus and other healthcare facilities.

There have been no reports of deaths or injuries so far. On Tuesday, Spokane County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the 14 people who were previously unaccounted for have been reached, member station Northwest Public Broadcasting reported.

Those who have been evacuated are seeking refuge at the Spokane Convention Center, which is being used as a Red Cross shelter.

Charlie Patrick evacuated on Saturday and is staying with her son at the shelter. Patrick, who is 54 and disabled, said she left her apartment with nothing and doesn't know whether it burned down.

"I hope it is still there," she said, choking back tears. "I have a lot of memories and pictures and stuff of my family I can't get back."

Donna Deeble, 92, is also at the Red Cross shelter. She was evacuated from an assisted living facility in a coordinated effort by Spokane Transit Authority. 

"We were sitting out in front and waiting to see what happened, and pretty soon the transit buses came and picked us up," she told Northwest Public Broadcasting. "There was a constant line of families picking up their elder people, so it was a busy place, but we were all pretty calm."

Firefighters on Monday and Tuesday were trying to take advantage of a brief reprieve in the high winds to contain the fires before another heat wave is forecast to arrive midweek.

In an interview with NPR's Here & Now on Monday, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson described Spokane as a "war zone."

"It's devastating," Ferguson said, adding that neighborhoods in the city had been "wiped out."

Ferguson said he spoke with President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Sunday and had put in a request to the federal government "for an emergency declaration for immediate relief."

He said that included relief for housing and food, as well as search and rescue assistance.

Northwest Public Broadcasting's Anna King and Erick Bengel contributed reporting.

Copyright 2026 NPR

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There's not much that can be done with closed landfills. When these sites fill up with garbage, they are capped with layers of soil, clay and plastic liners. As the garbage decomposes, the ground can shift and become unsteady. Disturbing the capped landfill can release fumes like methane.

Still, some have found opportunity on these sites. Places across the country have turned old landfills into solar array fields, including one in New Jersey that has been operating since 2015. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the New Jersey site, which has about 42,000 panels, produces enough power for 2,000 households.

Now, Pierce County is working to turn the old Purdy landfill into a green energy producer that will eventually benefit the Key Peninsula community.

" There are a lot of things that are not allowed on a closed landfill, for good reason. We think this is the highest and best use for this property," said Ryan Dicks, a sustainability manager and solid waste administrator for the county. "It has unfettered access to the sun. There are no trees for a little bit. So finding this large of an area that isn't fully treed is really rare in western Washington, and so that's why it made really great sense to go with a solar project."

With $2.3 million from the state's Climate Commitment Act, the county recently completed installation of a solar array on the capped landfill. The total project is estimated to cost $3.5 million, and the remaining $1.2 million came from the county.

The site has 1,500 panels over an area that's the size of nearly two football fields.

How it will work

The county anticipates that the solar array will begin generating energy by the end of the year. Then, the county plans to sell the energy to Peninsula Light Company, the area's utility, and use that to help some residents on the Key Peninsula drive down energy costs.

The county estimated the solar array will bring in about $20,000 to $50,000 annually.

It's still being determined what programs the funds will go towards. County staff said it could be used to help residents pay for weatherization projects or install a heat pump to make homes more energy efficient. The money could also go towards utility bill assistance for low-income residents.

"We believe that this one-megawatt solar project is gonna create enough energy to run 100 homes for the entire year," Dicks said.

Even during the Big Dark of Pacific Northwest winters, these panels can keep working. The tilted panels will sluff any snow off of them. On really cold, clear winter days, the panels will absorb the sun's energy. Plus, sun rays still peek through on cloudy days.

Pierce County closed the Purdy Landfill in 1989, but it's still being used as a transfer center. Community members can bring garbage to the facility, which is then transported to an active landfill.

Solar panels can last up to 50 years, and Dicks said the county plans to have them on site as long as they're functional.

The county also plans to use the site as an educational opportunity.

"We're hoping to educate both adults and youth about the benefits of solar, that it does work well in the Pacific Northwest, and that it's a way to make money off your roof and maybe lower your utility bills, by the month," Dicks said.

The project has already created jobs on the Key Peninsula and will continue to support employment.

" This is unique in the number of green jobs that are being produced," said Katie Condit, CEO of Workforce Central, the county's workforce development agency. " Out on the peninsula, job development often happens at a slower pace than it does in the city and urban centers. And so that makes it an exceptional opportunity for local skilled workers."

Once the site is up and running, Condit said there will be a need for  solar system inspections, utility coordination, electricians and other maintenance workers, and that the county will prioritize hiring people who live nearby.

" It keeps local dollars local when we can incorporate these really good jobs for our local workforce," Condit said.

Read the audio transcript here.

Copyright 2026 NWPB News (Northwest Public Broadcasting)