At 2 p.m. on Aug. 1, Haidee Solis’ children were playing outside in the yard when she went to check on them and noticed smoke moving quickly toward their Spokane home.

Solis, who owns Los Habaneros, a Mexican restaurant in the city, remembered a customer had once shared an app that tracked nearby fires. She opened it and saw the fire had jumped to just blocks away from her house.

She and her husband quickly gathered their three-year-old daughter and five-year-old son, grabbed a handful of clothes and packed two photos of the kids.

They were trapped in traffic with a nearly empty tank of gas. They could see the smoke roiling behind them, and then, Solis said:

“Las casas de enfrente empezaron a explotar,” describing in Spanish how the houses in front of them “started to explode.”

As they drove away, Solis held onto hope that their home would be spared. But when she returned the next day, she found everything they owned had been reduced to ash, except for a coffee mug buried beneath piles of soot and debris.

Theirs was among hundreds of homes — more than 850 buildings in the Spokane area — to burn down in a series of fires. As Solis and her husband figure out what’s next, access to emergency information in Spanish has been critical for them. Community organizations, from a local radio program to aid groups, are stepping in to fill that role, providing resources and support to families navigating the crisis.

City officials say they are providing information in languages other than English, but inside the studios of a small community radio station, one program — the only broadcast of its kind within a 135-mile radius — has become a lifeline for Spanish-speaking residents impacted by the fires.

El Puente

Last week during a live show at KYRS Thin Air Community Radio, the phone rang mid-broadcast.

Thirty minutes into his live radio show, the host picked up.

“¿Rafa Zamora, con quién hablo?”

It was another caller looking for vital emergency information in Spanish. Rafael Zamora listened briefly, before handing the phone to his co-host, Samantha Peralta, seconds before he went live again.

“We need and deserve to be informed about everything that is happening — not just at the local, but at the state, or perhaps national level — in our own language,” Zamora said. “Because otherwise it is only available in English.”

Since the fires broke out, Zamora has tripled the airtime for the show, El Puente: La Voz Latina, or in English, “The Bridge: The Latino Voice.” He has hosted the Spanish-language program since the pandemic years and he estimated about 4,500 regular listeners tune in, a number that’s likely climbed as evacuation orders continued for more than a week and residents searched for critical updates in a language they understand.

“Our program can be heard in Spokane, north of here in Colville, and even down south, 40 miles from Walla Walla,” he said.

About 8% of Spokane County’s population speaks a language other than English at home, U.S. Census data show. As the need for information grows, Jerrall Haynes, director of the City of Spokane’s Office of Civil Rights, Equity and Inclusion, said the city has translated emergency information on its website into Spanish and more than 100 other languages, updating those pages daily to keep residents informed as the situation changes.

But Haynes also said community organizations have played an essential role in reaching residents directly.

During air breaks, Zamora and Peralta quickly discuss and sort through new information and updates to share with listeners. Then, they put on their headphones and go live again, riffing off each other.

Zamora said he’s been working closely with local nonprofit organizations supporting Latino, immigrant and other underserved communities. The host has directed people to different resources from groups like Latinos en Spokane, Mujeres in Action and Nuestras Raíces Community Center.

‘Our home is us’

At the Nuestras Raíces office in a warehouse near downtown Spokane, tables are lined up with fuzzy blankets, diapers, N95 masks and other necessities for those who have had to evacuate or lost their homes.

Isabel Mazcot, the organization’s operations manager, says 17 Latino families had stopped by so far seeking assistance, including food, clothing and counseling services.

She says the organization’s Facebook Live updates help keep residents informed in Spanish.

“One mom came in with her six-month baby the very first hour that we opened since we went live on Facebook,” she said. “She lost everything. She needed some diapers and we were able to give that.”

After her family’s rental home burned down, Solis’ was one of the families that stopped by Nuestras Raíces to get help. They’ve been staying at different places, bouncing between open properties owned by their former landlord.

Solis said their days are too busy to dwell on what’s happened — running their restaurant and trying to give her kids a sense of normalcy, like keeping a routine dental appointment.

It’s at night, when she finally has a moment to sit with her thoughts, that the reality of losing their home sinks in.

“I think the nights are the hardest because that’s when I wish I could go back to my house, but I can’t. There’s no going back anymore,” she said.

The house was home for her husband, their kids and Solis’ mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in April. Solis is worried about keeping her as comfortable as possible when she starts radiation treatments this month.

“I told my mom, ‘Mom, you’re sick, and you have to start your treatments. You need a place where you can be comfortable because the treatment you’re going through is exhausting,” Solis said. “But she has taught me that being strong is the only option we have right now.”

Through it all, Solis said access to information has become just as important as access to resources. She has relied on updates from Zamora’s radio show and his Facebook page, as well as Nuestras Raíces, which has helped connect her to a counselor.

She said she wanted support in helping her children understand what happened, and processing losing their home.

“We had to go to therapy to figure out how to explain it to them because they’re so young,” Solis said. “But the therapist explained that, even though they’re young, we have to talk to them and tell them, ‘You know what? Now, our home is us.’”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/10/oregon-latino-spanish-spokane-washington/