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As Spokane Wildfires Raged, Health Center Staff Mobilized for Patients
During recent fires in Spokane, Washington, Community Health Association of Spokane provided care in shelters, schools, parking lots, and more. "We met people where they were," according to health center staff.
CHAS Health, which operates a school-based health center at Shadle Park High School, continued providing services to the community during the wildfires in Spokane, Washington. The high school served as a free drop-in camp for children, ages 4 and older, during the fires. (Courtesy photo)
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.
Destruction from the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, in August 2026. (City of Spokane Fire Department photo)
Trautvetter is the Women and Children Program Manager at CHAS. Employees of the health provider volunteered and worked with city, county, and community groups to aid residents as thousands were evacuated during the Old Trails, Autumn Lane, and Fairview fires.
From August 5-12, CHAS staffed medical personnel and volunteers at two disaster assistance centers: the convention center for severe medical needs, and Shadle Park High School for evacuated residents, many of whom have school-aged children. During the fires, Direct Relief provided CHAS with field medic packs for triage care outside of clinic walls, personal protective equipment for people returning to burn zones, and hygiene items for displaced people.
“We went to (the people), and that’s what makes me proud to work for CHAS,” said Trautvetter. “It was an all-hands-on-deck matter.”
Health center staff were also experiencing the emergency personally even as they worked to help the larger community. At least 14 CHAS employees lost their homes in the fires, and many more were evacuated while trying to serve others, said Trautvetter.
Local news outlet, the Spokesman Review, reported that the fires have destroyed over 1,000 structures, including over 800 residential properties.
The health center was well positioned to respond during the emergency, having opened a brick-and-mortar school-based health program and mini-pharmacy at the high school in May of 2024. Staffed by a primary care physician, medical assistant, behavioral health provider, and community health workers, the school-based center was equipped to support the evacuated residents. They also utilized the school’s parking lot to house the mobile dental unit for three days for additional assistance.
CHAS Health deployed its mobile dental unit to provide services during the fire at locations throughout the community, including a local high school serving as a drop-in center for impacted children and families. (Courtesy photo)
Below are questions from Direct Relief to better understand CHAS’ on-the-street emergency response to the wildfires. The following questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Direct Relief: How soon after the fires started did CHAS begin emergency response?
Trautvetter: Almost immediately because the fires grew rapidly. I was in contact with the Spokane Public School District personnel and our chief of staff. We started planning for what this might look like long-term.
The first thing the county and the school district did was create a day camp for kids at Shadle Park High School so that families could get free childcare for a couple of hours a day amid housing evacuations. We were very involved in helping get that set up at the school, and a few days later it was announced that the school would be a disaster assistance center, where we also have a school-based location.
Direct Relief: People don’t often think of a health center as a first responder during an emergency. Is this typical work for CHAS, to jump in when the community is in need?
Trautvetter: We do. CHAS is a very large federally qualified health center in the Spokane area. While we do provide primary, dental, and behavioral health services to all patients, regardless of ability to pay, we really try to work in the community and be good partners of the communities that we serve. Our street medicine team is in the streets every day; our mobile medical unit goes into communities that are underserved, and we really do meet people where they are. So, this was not unusual for us to be all-hands-on-deck. It’s just what we do at CHAS; we help where we can.
Direct Relief: How is treating someone in this capacity different from treating them at the brick-and-mortar locations when there isn’t an emergency situation?
Trautvetter: We met people where they were. If they couldn’t find a way to get to our clinics, we found a way to help them. It’s great to have a clinic that’s fully stocked for people to come in, but giving them additional options when they aren’t mobile or are facing barriers that prevent them from approaching the clinic is great.
We supported a lot of patients who were displaced, or who had no transportation, or who needed telehealth visits to get medications refilled…We did a lot of triaging for patients and checking in on people. On the medical supply front, we primarily replenished first aid kits and medications. We also helped with referrals and finding providers that were operating in nearby locations
It was an eye-opener for me. When you lose your home, there are so many missing little pieces. Pet food, daily hygiene supplies, PPE, and the N95 masks were the highest requests. The smoke was so dense, and the air quality was so bad, people really needed to be protected. Having those supplies available to give out on a large scale was crucial.
Medical aid departs Direct Relief’s warehouse on August 6, 2026, bound for health providers serving patients impacted by wildfires in Washington. (Tori Gordon/Direct Relief)
Direct Relief: Being able to meet people where they are is great, especially during a disaster. How has responding to the Spokane fires made a difference in the way you all will respond to emergencies in the future? Do you think you’re reaching a different population than what CHAS would normally care for?
Trautvetter: Absolutely. At our school-based health centers, we don’t require patients to establish primary care to be seen; it’s a lot like going to urgent care. A lot of people that we supported were people who have primary care elsewhere.
There was one woman whose primary care provider’s office was in the evacuation zone, as was her pharmacy. She couldn’t pick up medications or get refills. We were able to help her get her medications without switching primary care providers.
Direct Relief: Given so many of the patients were seen in-place during emergency response and do not see CHAS providers on a regular basis, what will follow-up care look like? Can people come back if you’re not their primary care physician?
Trautvetter: Absolutely. Every patient we saw has a follow-up plan, and we made sure they knew that they can come back into the clinic even if just for hygiene and first aid supplies. We continue to offer the emergency kits that Direct Relief provided.
Whether it’s with CHAS or their primary care provider, we encourage a follow-up visit with a medical professional. The mental health support following all of this will be important moving forward. There were close to 1,000 structures that were destroyed, and the estimate is that nearly 500 of those had school-aged children living there. So, we’re partnering with Spokane Public Schools on providing mental health support for kids in the aftermath of losing their home.
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