Spokane: Who’s Open, Who’s Closed,
and Who’s Feeding People

Updated Thursday, August 6, 2026. This is a fast-moving situation and things change by the hour. Please call ahead before you drive anywhere. Sources for everything below are listed at the bottom.

The Old Trails, Autumn Lane and Fairview fires broke out on Saturday, August 1 and are being managed together as the Spokane Complex. As of today, all three are at roughly 13% containment, and crews have containment lines around the full perimeter of each. That is real progress from the 0% we were looking at on Monday.

The scale is still hard to take in. Around 700 structures destroyed. Nearly 67,000 people forced from their homes. More than 11,000 acres burned. Over 1,400 firefighting personnel are assigned, along with more than 100 Washington National Guard members.

Mandatory evacuation orders are still in place in parts of the region. Officials have said levels could be downgraded soon, but soon is not yet.

A man has been arrested and charged with arson in connection with the Old Trails fire. Investigators believe the Autumn Lane and Fairview fires were also human-caused, though not necessarily set on purpose.

We write about cheap food. This week that means something different, so here is what we know about the restaurants and the neighborhoods around them.

This is the part of the post that has changed most since Monday. What started as a few restaurants cooking on instinct is now an organized network with real hours.

Feast World Kitchen has moved to a daily schedule. Free meals to wildfire victims and anyone who needs one, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., every day, until the need dies down. This is the single most reliable free meal in the city right now.

Tamale Box is serving free meals to firefighters, first responders and anyone displaced or affected. One per person, no questions asked, dine in. Both the Kendall Yards and Liberty Lake locations.

Great Harvest will hand you two sandwiches and a loaf of bread, free, no questions asked, through their Food for Friends program. Walk up to the counter and ask.

Baba in Kendall Yards has complimentary grab-and-go care bags for first responders and anyone displaced, no purchase needed, while supplies last. Their doors are also open if you just need to charge a phone, refill a water bottle, get out of the smoke and sit down.

Nuestras Raices Community Center at 1214 E. Sprague is running community meals alongside its clothing bank. Hours vary, so check before you go.

Spokane Buddhist Temple, 927 S. Perry St., is serving home-cooked meals with fresh produce, salads and vegetarian options on Friday, August 7, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Basement, north door on the Perry Street side. First come, first served.

MLK Jr. Family Outreach Center and Carl Maxey Center, 500 S. Stone St., Tuesday through Friday 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Drive-thru food bank, gently used clothing and hygiene bags, plus free summer meals for kids 18 and under and daily senior meals.

Victory Faith Center, 2024 Argonne Rd., partnering with Convoy of Hope. Drive-through distribution Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hygiene items, baby supplies, ready-to-eat food and bottled water while they last.

Union Gospel Mission and World Central Kitchen are both serving. The Salvation Army has mobile kitchens working in affected areas.

Women and Children's Free Restaurant and Community Kitchen has been running free meal events all week. Spokane native Sydney Sweeney turned up at Wednesday's without announcing it in advance and spent the afternoon handing out food.

Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Cuisine. Owner Almaz Ainuu spent last Sunday morning cooking vegan and meat stews with chickpeas and Ethiopian bread and giving them away to anyone displaced, working with First Presbyterian Church while community donations covered the groceries. Her own home in Spokane Valley was fine. She said her city just comes together, and that giving is a blessing. Check with the restaurant on whether they are still serving free meals this week.

The Red Cross shelter at the Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., serves hot meals around the clock. You do not need ID and you do not have to stay overnight to eat.

This is the item we most want you to see.

Big Table is a Spokane nonprofit that exists specifically to care for restaurant and hospitality workers in crisis, and it is supporting industry people affected by the fires right now. Line cooks, servers, dishwashers, bartenders. If you lost a house, lost your shifts, or are sleeping on a friend's floor while your restaurant is dark, this is the number to call: (509) 979-1005.

If you are in the industry and you came through this fine, they are also where to send help.

SIMBA, the Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance, has a fire-response page for owners: free consults with the fee waived through 2026 for anyone in an evacuation zone, covering insurance claims and grant applications, plus disaster loans, relief grants and free coworking space.

Important caveat. The open and closed lists below come from Spokesman-Review reporting published Monday, August 3, with named staff on the record. That is three days old now and we have not been able to re-verify it. Treat it as a starting point, not a status board, and call before you go.

Pete's Pizza. Business slowed at first and had mostly come back. One of the cooks said people were coming in because they wanted to stop thinking about the fire for an hour.

Tecate Grill on Northwest Boulevard. Confusion Saturday when the power went out, business back to normal by Monday. Owner Pablo Vazquez said several of his employees lost their homes.

De Leon Foods on North Francis. Closed early Saturday, open Sunday and busier than usual. Store manager Josh Saldibar said the point was staying open for people who could not cook because they had no power.

Lilac Lanes & Casino. Quiet through the weekend, open. They planned to serve free meals to the regional fire department today, Thursday.

The Garland Theater. Closed Saturday mid-carnival because it sat on the edge of the evacuation zone, reopened Sunday. See below for what it has become since.

The Swinging Doors on West Francis, inside the Old Trails Level 3 evacuation zone. Several employees affected and the restaurant's manager lost his home. General manager Lisa Emery said the building is still standing, they just cannot open yet. Level 3 orders in that area had not been lifted as of this morning.

Outlaw BBQ & Catering and Fieldhouse Pizza & Pub, both at Assembly and Wellesley. Customers found the lights off over the weekend. Worth knowing: Outlaw has two Spokane locations, and it was the north store at 4427 W. Wellesley that closed. The other location is a separate address and was not reported closed.

If you had a reservation, a catering order or a party booked at any of these, give them room. Some of these teams are dealing with far more than a closed dining room.

The Garland Theater, 924 W. Garland Ave., has grown from a donation table into a full free resource center. Diapers, food, toiletries, blankets, clothing and pet supplies. Take what you need, no questions asked. Nobody asked them to do this. Volunteers and donations just showed up.

Spokane Baby Company, a block east, is still collecting and still running its take-what-you-need table.

Second Harvest is accepting nonperishable food at 1234 E. Front Ave. Partners Inland Northwest is taking nonperishable food, clothing, diapers and hygiene items at 10814 E. Broadway Ave. in Spokane Valley.

Project Beauty Share, 2718 E. Sprague, collects the things SNAP does not cover: soap, shampoo, deodorant, razors, tampons.

A number of local businesses have opened as overflow drop-off points, including Ruby Hotel, Global Neighborhood Thrift, Spokane Subaru and Wendle Ford. Check what each one needs before loading the car.

Please do not take donations to fire stations or incident command. See the correction at the top of this post.

Cash beats cans, and it is not close.

• City of Spokane H.O.M.E. Starts Here Fund, the city's official relief fund. The city set up its own portal specifically so people would have a scam-free way to give.
• Innovia Foundation Spokane Complex Wildfire Response Fund. Tax-deductible, funds local nonprofits.
• American Red Cross. Text REDCROSS to 90999 or call 1-800-RED CROSS.

Two things worth going to if you would rather show up than click:

Spokane Complex Fire Benefit Concert, Friday August 7 at The Chameleon, 1801 W. Sunset Blvd. Doors 6 p.m., sliding scale $10 to $50, 21 and over. Ticket and raffle proceeds go to the H.O.M.E. fund.

Spokane Strong Music Fest, September 5 at Spokane Tribe Casino. Live music, local vendors, food, family activities, proceeds to the Innovia fund.

One Tree Hard Cider is running special tasting room hours with 100% of sales going to relief.

Be careful out there. Disasters attract fraud. If a fundraiser cannot clearly tell you who the money goes to and how, do not give, and never send a card number, gift card or crypto to anyone who contacts you first.

• Disaster Assistance Center, Shadle Park High School, 4327 N. Ash St. Opens today, Thursday, noon to 6 p.m., then 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Case management, demolition and debris questions, permitting, and multiple agencies on site in one place. If you lost a home, start here.
• Spokane Convention Center, 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. Red Cross shelter, open 24 hours, free garage parking, pets welcome.
• Spokane County Fairgrounds, 404 N. Havana St. Open 24 hours, room for trailers, RVs and large animals.
• Washington 211. Call or text 211 for shelter, housing, food, legal aid and recovery help. This is the fastest route to a human who can point you at the right thing.
• Spokane Public Library, any branch. Clean air, air conditioning, power to charge devices, kids' spaces, or just somewhere quiet to sit.
• YMCA of the Inland Northwest. North, South, Central and Valley branches for showers and respite. Photo ID required, hours vary by branch.
• U-Haul is offering 30 days of free self-storage at seven Spokane locations to people displaced by the fires.
• CHAS Health for medical care, mental health and prescription help regardless of insurance or ability to pay.
• Disaster Distress Helpline, 1-800-985-5990, free and confidential, around the clock. You do not have to be in crisis to call.

If you lost food you bought with food benefits, Washington DSHS may be able to replace some or all of the value. Deadlines vary by county, so call rather than assume.

Go eat. Half the restaurants in north Spokane lost their whole first weekend, and plenty are running short-staffed because employees are sleeping somewhere else or dealing with a house that is gone. A normal Thursday lunch rush does more for them right now than almost anything else.

Tip well if you can.

We update this when we can, but we are not a Spokane newsroom and we cannot track a live fire hour by hour. Two sources are doing that properly and you should use them instead of us for anything urgent:

• Spokast maintains a verified Spokane wildfire relief directory at spokast.com/spokane-wildfire-relief, updated daily, with far more detail than we have here on housing, pets, legal aid, mental health and childcare. Most of the current free-meal information in this post came from their work.
• Watch Duty has live fire perimeters, evacuation zones and containment. ALERT Spokane at alertspokane.org will send emergency notices straight to your phone.

All checked August 6, 2026.

1. "Spokane Wildfire Relief: Verified Ways to Help," Spokast!, updated August 5, 2026. spokast.com
2. Cimarron Waldo, Isla Hansen and Miller Coyne, "Spokane businesses show resilience amid the flames," The Spokesman-Review, August 3, 2026. spokesman.com
3. "Crews battle Spokane fires. Latest news on containment, evacuations," August 6, 2026. centraloregondaily.com
4. "LIVE: Spokane fires arson suspect, containment, evacuations," FOX 13 Seattle, updated August 5, 2026. fox13seattle.com
5. "Spokane Area Fires: Crews make significant progress on containment," KIRO 7, August 5, 2026. kiro7.com
6. "Spokane, Washington wildfires; arson arrest made in connection to Old Trails Fire," CNN, August 3, 2026. cnn.com
7. "Fire relief efforts underway in Spokane with resource center and meal distribution," KXLY, August 5, 2026. kxly.com
8. "Sydney Sweeney to attend free meal event for those impacted by Spokane Area Fires," KHQ, August 4, 2026. khq.com
9. "Our city just comes together: Community provides free meals in the wake of Spokane-area fires," The Spokesman-Review, August 2, 2026. spokesman.com
10. "Not just shelter: Where to get free childcare, meals, showers and more as wildfires ravage Spokane," The Spokesman-Review, August 2, 2026. spokesman.com
11. "Where to donate money, supplies to help the thousands of Spokane wildfire evacuees," KOMO News, August 3, 2026. komonews.com
12. "Spokane Wildfires: Red Cross Supporting Evacuees," American Red Cross, August 3, 2026. redcross.org
13. Big Table Spokane, hospitality worker support. bigtable.org
14. SIMBA fire response page, Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance. spokaneindependent.org
15. "Here's what we know about all the fires currently burning across Spokane County," KREM 2, updated August 6, 2026. krem.com
16. "Spokane Complex Fires and Washington Wildfires Emergency Updates," Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. dshs.wa.gov
17. City of Spokane wildfire information hub. my.spokanecity.org

Hours and offers during an active fire change constantly, so call before you go. For evacuation status, follow Spokane County Emergency Management, Watch Duty, or the WA DNR wildfire dashboard.