Starting August 1, 2026, a complex of fast-moving wildfires—including the Old Trails, Autumn Lane, and Fairview fires—devastated the edges of Spokane, Washington. The wind-driven blazes scorched over 10,500 acres, destroyed at least 900 homes and structures, and forced roughly 65,000 residents to evacuate in what officials termed a historic regional disaster.
Spokane and many areas of the Inland Northwest have gone through a collective tragedy, echoes of which will be felt for decades to come. Spokane alone lost 900 structures, including apartment buildings and a sports complex. But I’m not going to write much about the tragedy. My three years as a volunteer firefighter in Adams County during my high school years did not make me an expert on fire suppression or emergency management, but I think I am a bit of an expert on this community, and seeing and being a part of it coming together in these difficult times has been truly inspiring.
The day the fires started was actually my 20 year high school reunion from Othello High School. The awkwardness was broken by showing people videos my husband was sending me, mostly from people driving down Indian Trail. He is a dispatcher for the fire dept so he is super plugged into what was happening. What was happening was described by one of his co-dispatchers, as ‘the worst day they’ve ever had.’ ‘My house is in a level 3 evac zone’ turned out to be a very effective ice breaker. I cancelled my plans to visit our old swimming hole in the potholes state park and headed back early Sunday morning to a changed Spokane.
Everyone I know involved in leadership of our queer orgs were reeling, trying to figure out how to be of best use in this time of crisis. Spokane Pride doesn’t provide direct service really, but pound for pound we’re likely the most effective event organization in the region (our budget is a quarter that of some other queer orgs in Spokane, we’re TINY!). So I put up a post on Facebook on Sunday asking if any performers would be interested in helping out with a fundraiser to benefit victims of the fire, and in probably 2 hours I had a lineup. Then at 11am Monday morning we created a subcommittee of our entertainment committee and met to plan the event. So many of our people were feeling the same thing, ‘What can I do to help?’ Our fundraiser was on Friday as some of the fires were still burning, where we managed to raise $5,164 dollars which we donated to the H.O.M.E Cares fund the city set up to go directly to victims of the fire. We also gathered a truckload of specified items to send to the Colville and Spokane reservations because they were in great need of relief.
We’re not stopping at one fundraiser either. As I write this today (August 15th) we have our second fire relief fundraiser later tonight. Those funds will be donated to a fund helping in the recovery of the Spokane and Colville reservations and to buy supplies to make our community air filters. We’re going to do fundraisers as often as we can manage, and as long as our community keeps showing up. In times like these the need to come and just be together is so very important, plus giving people an opportunity to contribute and support their neighbors is how we start the recovery from this collective trauma.
Our roommates at the SAN Pride Center is the Spokane AIDS Network, they already work in the lane of community support with their food pantry and other services, so pivoting to do more in this time of need was the most natural thing to do. They opened their food pantry 3 days early and invited members of Trans Spokane, an org serving our trans community with over 500 people in their discord server in order to make sure this highly targeted community had what they needed during this crisis. We made our Pride center a hub for collection and distribution for things needed around the community. There were so many donations around the community, it became our job to figure out what was needed most, where, which was very much a moving target as things progressed. In this next week we plan to use some of the funds raised today to buy parts to make air filters to give to SAN clients, LGBTQ Seniors, and members of Trans Spokane.
We are in our one corner doing what we can, while the community as a whole was busy at work responding to this tragedy. By Tuesday (Aug 4th) a meeting had been called at Shadle Park High School for educators, politicians, faith, business, and nonprofit leaders and everything in between to get together to discuss the emergency response. A captive audience of hundreds of leaders listened to everyone from the person in charge of the emergency management to our Mayor speak about what happened and what is happening in response. It was truly beautiful seeing our community come together and put aside any past drama and just do what needs to be done.
All of this made planning a large outdoor street festival feel very depressing. It felt like there was an aura hanging over our town along with the smoke. The smoke being a constant reminder of the destruction, a constant reminder that my favorite hiking trail burned completely, that many of my favorite landscapes will now just be charred remains. Pride will go on. Pride must go on. Our second biggest event of the year only after Spokane Pride is Garland Pride. We take over an adorable historic business district and throw what I like to call a ‘neighborhood Pride.’ My feelings of depression every time I sat down to plan were only relieved when we had our big planning meeting with the neighborhood. Instead of sitting there and talking details of the event, I told them how I was feeling, and we all went around the circle and talked about how we were affected, what our threshold should be for cancelling due to smoke, and how a Pride will be a balm to our community in these crazy times. It was a very non-standard community forum, but effective in reorienting my attitude toward planning Garland Pride.
Now the smoke has cleared and we are a week out and I’m excited that our team is going to provide an amazing space for our community - to come together in joy and celebration, to spread unconditional love and be one, together. If you can be around Spokane on August 22nd, please make your way up to the Garland District, it will be an ‘Alice and Wonderland’ themed Pride, what could be queerer!
We are also looking forward to Hillyard Pride on Sept 19th. Hillyard is another adorable historic neighborhood that we all felt could really use a neighborhood Pride, especially after the drama of a truly hateful coffee stand that is up there (long story…).
Pride Camp is something particularly close to my heart as well. We are taking over a church camp on Lake Coeur D’Alene Sept 25th through 28th in partnership with North Idaho Pride Alliance, SAN, and the Lincoln LGBTQ Center. We are hoping to create a space to build community connections over our region and just be together in nature. I like to also joke that we are going to work on healing from the scars that we received at church camp, at a church camp. Please email info@spokanepride.org if you are interested in attending.
Watching and being a part of our community come together in either disaster response or to celebrate universal love and equality is the privilege of a lifetime. I really believe that we are laying down community infrastructure that will far outlast all of us. We need to normalize coming together in person and supporting each other in times of desperation, in times of joy, and everything in between. Thank you all so much for being a part of our queer community and being one together year after year, day after day.
HAPPY PRIDE!
Related article:
Aug 13, 2026 Thoughts from the Hobbit House: The View From Our Balcony, Watching a Spokane Tragedy Unfold
