The Summerland fire, which ignited Friday near Okanagan Lake, has expanded quickly and prompted evacuation orders for more than 20,000 people. South of the border, many of the tens of thousands displaced by a cluster of wildfires near Spokane, Washington, were permitted to return yesterday as firefighters intensified efforts to extinguish lingering hot spots. By Sunday, those blazes had burned 10,000 acres and destroyed or heavily damaged more than 900 homes in and around Spokane. The outbreak is the second fire near Athens this summer, following one 10 days ago northwest of the city that destroyed more than 11,000 hectares of pine forest and farmland. From 2017 to 2026, 42% of the total forest area in the region burned because of 15 major fires.