Community Risk Assessment 2020 - 2025

Interactive City Map to the right, click anywhere →

The City of Spokane, with an estimated 2022 population of 233,034 is the largest city by population in the county and the second largest in the state. The Spokane Fire Department service area is approximately 69.5 square miles and consists of a mix of urban, suburban, industrial and wildland areas.

The City of Spokane occupies the central core of Spokane County with the Spokane River running through the downtown core of Spokane. There are two main streams in the county: the Palouse and Spokane Rivers. All the water ultimately drains into the Columbia River.

 Except for the southern part, the city is located almost entirely on the surface of the gravel fill of the Spokane Valley. Most of the city lies at elevations from 1900 to 2100. The City of Spokane consists of rich farmlands, both non-irrigated and irrigated, extensive mineral deposits, and thousands of acres of commercial timber. However, the city is not noted for employment in these fields of activity, but rather the secondary type industries, such as trade, transportation, finance and services. Historically, these areas of employment that tend to experience a relatively stable existence.

- GSCEM Spokane County Mitigation Plan 2020

Spokane, the second largest city in Washington, is located in Eastern Washington about 20 miles west of Idaho and 110 miles south of the Canadian border, in the heart of the Inland Northwest. Encompassing around 60 square miles, it has been the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis and between Calgary and Salt Lake City since it was founded in 1810. Spokane became an incorporated City on Nov. 29, 1881, encompassing 1.56 square miles. Back then, the City was known as Spokan Falls and had 350 residents. The “e” was added to Spokane in 1883, and “Falls” was dropped in 1891. The City suffered, perhaps, its biggest setback in 1889, when a fire ravaged downtown resulting in one civilian casualty and 32 blocks of destruction.

Spokane’s largest employers are Fairchild Air Force Base, the State of Washington, and the healthcare industry. Spokane ranked #4 in the country for metropolitan areas with the highest published employment concentrations and wages in the health care industry according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Spokane is a prime location for outdoor adventures as well as urban outings. The area offers everything from hiking, fishing, and skiing to world-class performances and exhibits, wineries and breweries, and athletics.

Population Demographics

2022 Statistics

The City of Spokane is home to 233,034 residents

Median Resident Age: 37.8 Years

Number of Households in Spokane: 96,026

Average persons per household: 2.3

Income and Cost of Living

• Estimated median household income: $56,575
• Estimated per capita income: $34,216
• Estimated median value of owner-occupied housing units: $288,750
• Median contract rent: $777

Employment and Business

Unemployment: 2.9%

Largest Spokane Employers

• Fairchild Air Force Base
• State of Washington
• Providence Health Care
• MultiCare – Inland Northwest Region
• Spokane Public Schools
• City of Spokane
• Spokane County

City of Spokane Assessed Valuation: $19,399,526,547

Source:  City of Spokane  (spokanecity.org), Esri data compiled from ACS, US Census

Interactive Land Use Map to the right, click anywhere, the Legend is the bottom left corner icon →

Each piece of property within the City of Spokane has a specific zone assigned to it. The zoning category determines what uses are allowed on the property. The City of Spokane consolidates all of the development regulations and guidelines into a Unified Development Code (UDC) found in Spokane  Municipal Code  Title 17.

The UDC, or “Zoning Code”, contains the descriptions of the City's zoning categories, the uses allowed, and the development standards for each zone. The development standards provide information such as required building setbacks, height limitations, lot coverage, landscaping requirements, and parking ratios. A quick summary of allowed uses for each zone is  available here .

The heart of the city is the Spokane River and its beautiful upper and lower falls, which run through the Downtown area and bisect the city. The Spokane area can be characterized by hills, plains, prairies, and coniferous forests. Mount Spokane is the highest peak near the city. Forests in the surrounding areas are responsible for one-quarter of the world's white pine trees and there are almost 30 million acres of profitable forests in the Spokane exchange.

Spokane's climate is impacted by its location between the Cascade Mountain Range to its west and the Rocky Mountains to the East and North. The mountains shield the city from weather patterns experienced in other parts of the Pacific Northwest. The regions sees more distinguishable four seasons than the western part of Washington state. The area averages 16.5 inches of annual precipitation, 48 inches of snow during the winter, and 80-90 degree temperatures during the hottest summer months.

Below is a further explanation of color coding of the Washington State Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) map.

The interactive Web App to the right shows the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), or the areas where wildlands and human development meet or intermingle, resulting in a potential fire danger →

Spokane Fire Department has 8 Wildland Engines equipped with the tools and hoses needed to tend to any brush fire in our wildland urban interface. They are strategically positioned at stations throughout the city. These are the stations that coincide similarly to what the Wildland Urban Interface (to the right) considers the greatest potential risk both in and surrounding the City of Spokane. 

Interactive Road Map to the right, click anywhere →

In 1881, the Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in Spokane and in 1904 became the Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad Company. The railroads were the main reason for Spokane’s exponential growth after the Great Fire, which helped to make Spokane the center of the Inland Empire. In 1929, Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad Company merged with the Great Northern Railway, and has since become transcontinental.

Today, the main rail line travels directly through the heart of downtown on an elevated railroad track. The railways carry products including: fuel, metals, chemicals, construction materials, grain, coal, other freights and intermodals, etc.

Railroad companies that travel through Spokane include:

• BNSF Railway
• Western Fruit Express
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Inland Empire Distribution Systems
• Amtrak
• Washington & Idaho RR
• Railroad Fuel Consultants Lp

“Major hazard events are often identified by federal disaster declarations, which are issued for hazard events that cause more damage than state and local governments can handle without assistance.” (FEMA, 2012a)

These hazards can be classified into three categories. First, the Presidential Major Disaster declaration, includes major disasters such as: hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes or fires the President determines warrant supplemental Federal Aid. The second, the Emergency Declaration, can be a bit more limited in scope and does not necessitate the need of the long-term Federal Recovery Programs of a Presidential Major Disaster declaration. Lastly, Fire Management Assistance declaration, approves declaration for fire management assistance when a fire constitutes a major disaster. Below is a table of the Disaster Declarations for all of Spokane County, as provided by the County Hazard Mitigation Plan. 

Fires, collisions, explosions, leaks, derailments can all be seen as hazardous materials related emergencies. SFD regularly responds to Hazardous Material, or HAZMAT calls. Based on the severity and complexity of call, appropriate SFD resources will be sent. All SFD stations are equipped to handle simple HAZMAT situations, with more complex calls handled by SFD designated HAZMAT stations. 

Special Operations leadership is responsible to proactively completing site pre-plans and walkthroughs of potentially dangerous buildings, or areas, where there is a high likelihood of hazardous materials involved as well any other unforeseen complication. These pre-incident site surveys are used to collect as much information on these potential hazards as possible before an emergency even occurs at that location. Fire stations should note the location of hazardous materials, how it is stored, how much is stored, and proper handling techniques. Now with that information available beforehand, when an emergency happens at that location, the firefighters should know what the appropriate emergency actions are, necessary PPE, and perimeter/evacuation distances. Each shift at the station must continue to review these pre-plans periodically to ensure they are up to date and as effective as possible.