SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane-area residents forced from their homes by a wildfire are returning to find smoke-damaged interiors and an emotional recovery that may outlast the cleanup.
“I thought it was going to be OK and then I came out here and saw the smoke coming over the house right here and that’s when I got scared,” said evacuee Ed Harrison. “When I left here there was probably a 50/50 chance that we were going to have a home here when we got back.”
Harrison said the ordeal exposed how unprepared he was and is now urging others to act before disaster strikes.
“Just have it ready, have it handy so you can go — birth certificates, passports, medications,” he said. “We weren’t.”
For those whose homes survived, relief has been tempered by what they found inside.
“The inside of our house smells like wildfire smoke — so strong that it’s hard to be in there,” said evacuee Jacqueline Gibson. “Our hearts are breaking for the people that lost their homes.”
Harrison acknowledged his family’s outcome could have been far worse. “We were incredibly, incredibly lucky,” he said.
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