New Delhi, Aug. 3 -- SPOKANE, Wash. - Fires that started Saturday on this city's western edge have destroyed more than 600 structures, a toll still rising Monday morning as federal emergency funds arrived and California's elite wildland fire management team assumed unified command across three fronts.

a heat dome parked across the Pacific Northwest for the fourth consecutive day by Sunday, dryland terrain where the urban edge meets open country, and a drought cycle that has thinned the vegetation's resistance to ignition. By Sunday evening the blaze had consumed 8.2 square miles of metropolitan Spokane. Two companion fires, Fairview and Autumn Lane, pushed further into residential areas while containment resources were divided between al...