Santa Barbara, California, Aug. 24 -- Fires were ablaze in Spokane for nearly 20 days in August 2026, forcing mass evacuations and causing millions of dollars in destruction.

However, 'Spokane comes together.'

That's what employees of the

Community Health Association of Spokane

, or CHAS, heard residents repeat to one another as staff walked the floors of a disaster assistance center with medical backpacks, offering first-aid care to evacuees.

"You would go outside for a few minutes, and come back in, and be covered in ash," said Daniel Trautvetter, who spoke with Direct Relief to give a sense of how the health center responded to the emergency.

Trautvetter is the Women and Children Program Manager at CHAS. Employees of the health p...