Ruyter

“They lost their house, lost her parents’ house,” de Ruyter said.

“Hopefully in the future, if we get a fire in that same place, it’ll be much lower-intensity and won’t get up into the tops of the trees,” de Ruyter said.

“We’re not going to be able to stop all the fires, but what we can do is look at the pockets of fuel,” de Ruyter said.

De Ruyter said fuel mitigation efforts to prevent wildfires are important for their department.

Spokane Fire Department spokesman Justin de Ruyter has a firefighter friend in Lahaina who’s married to another firefighter.