Everyone here in the Inland Northwest is dealing with the smoky conditions, even firefighters, who have their own set of problems.
“Smoke from Montana, smoke from Oregon, smoke from BC… It seems to be from all directions,” says Battalion Chief Bruce Moline from the Spokane Fire Department.
Firefighters are used to smoke, just not like this. On Tuesday afternoon the Spokane Fire Department along with the Department of Natural Resources responded to a brush fire on Beacon Hill. The problem was, they couldn’t find it through all the smoke. Moline says that’s not the only issue they’re having. He says with visibility down to less than half a mile, there could be a fire right down the street and you wouldn’t even know.
“With these kind of conditions, this is a great example, we weren’t able to see any kind of a column until we were pretty much right on scene,” Moline said. “That really hampers our ability to get more resources if that’s the need.”