Fire danger continues in the Pacific Northwest Saturday as flame-fueling winds reached their strongest point in days on Friday, challenging fire crews battling to keep destructive blazes from spreading in Spokane,

The fires have consumed thousands of acres, destroyed homes and forced residents to evacuate.

Authorities say about 5,000 homes have been evacuated and about 600 homes, businesses and other buildings have been destroyed by wildfires that remained uncontained Sunday in eastern Washington state.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown called the wildfires burning through the area the "worst natural disaster our region has faced."

Three wildfires in eastern Washington state have burned thousands of acres, putting 65,000 people under evacuation orders.

The fires in and around Spokane burned about 12 square miles (about 31 square kilometers) by early Monday and filled the sky with smoke and haze.

A wildfire in Whitman County started Saturday afternoon, prompting a Level 3 (“Go Now!”) evacuation order for residents in Malden — a valley town that burned in the 2020 Babb Road fire that destroyed 80% of its homes.

A man charged with starting one of the wildfires in Spokane, Washington, that have destroyed hundreds of buildings planned the crime for weeks and researched when the weather would be best for igniting it,

Fire officials in their latest update said the wildfires were at 0% containment though officials also said the blazes have not grown.