The roughly 240 National Guard members currently based in Spokane are tasked with assisting local law enforcement, which is worn thin by the ongoing fires in the region, the head of the department told The Spokesman-Review in an interview Sunday.
Maj. Gen. Gent Welsh, adjutant general of the Washington National Guard and a former longtime resident of Spokane, said Sunday that Guard members are tasked with assisting first responders so they can refocus on other, higher-priority efforts.
"The industrial scale that's out there, there's such a large area. You've got three disparate fires," Welsh said. "And if you think about it from a law enforcement security type of perspective, that's a lot of area to lock down."
The Guard members are currently serving in Spokane on the orders of Gov. Bob Ferguson, who directed them to help in fire response across central and Eastern Washington. Shortly after the fires started, Welsh began to coordinate with local Guard members, including a unit stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base last week.
"Our first thing was to reach out to the Spokane Emergency Management leadership, and just offer, you know, whatever assistance that we could provide," Welsh said. "By the time that the sun set that first night, we had about 40 national guardsmen on the ground here in Spokane helping with the evacuation."
As the fires spread, local agencies like the Spokane County Sheriff's Office and the Spokane Police Department were initially tasked with manning evacuation zones and roadblocks. But given the size and scale of the three fires burning in Spokane County, this became difficult to manage.
"And at some point, your entire workforce, all of your deputies, all your police officers are out there monitoring traffic, and not doing real police work," Welsh said. "So that's where the guard came in, you know, sort of assisting local law enforcement."
The Guard members, Welsh said, are identifiable by their camouflage uniform and may be wearing a green reflective vest, and they're "not doing anything other than law enforcement support in the state."
"They're not assisting any other federal agency. They're not doing anything, you know, crazy," Welsh said. "There's been a lot of rumors out there about what the guard is doing here."
The length of their presence in Spokane "depends" on what local agencies in the city and county need. The announcement that some of the evacuation zones throughout Spokane would be reduced could result in "shifting around" some guardsmen, particularly in neighborhoods where homes remain largely intact. Welsh said the guard's presence in the city may also be reduced.
"My sense is there's still quite a large need for the guard, really in the next few weeks," Welsh said. "When you look at it, just traffic control point piece, 200 some folks that we've been doing that, but I think there are other unmet needs, and I think those will develop."
Welsh, who earned both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Eastern Washington University and lived in Spokane for 16 years, said it's been "extremely challenging" to see the fires in a part of the state he considers home.
"I met my wife here, had kids here, went to college here," Welsh said.
On Sunday morning, Welsh ventured to Bowl and Pitcher and up Rifle Club Road, an area with which he became quite familiar as a member of the Spokane Rifle Club.
"I used to shoot down there along the river, and used to think of what a great piece of property, and it's gone," Welsh said. "And all of these places that I remember driving through, and being a part of, and the memories that I had, many of them are completely obliterated. And I feel so bad, I feel so bad for this community."
The Guard's role in Spokane differs from their efforts in north-central Washington as crews continue to battle the Little Giant fire, which is currently the largest fire burning in the state. There, Welsh said, more than 100 Guard members are actively helping in the firefighting effort.
"Just like times like this, where the national preparedness system is completely stretched out, and there's just not enough resources across the country, our Department of Natural Resources, our DNR, calls on the National Guard," Welsh said.
The size of the fire, which as of Sunday morning had grown to 111,429 acres and is just 2% contained, means the National Guard will likely "end up training more firefighters, replacing these, and it may just leapfrog for the next month or two."
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