Spokane Complex Fire · August 2026
They came from two dozen states and counting. Most have never been to Spokane, and most may leave without meeting anyone whose house they saved. Record a short message of gratitude.
Four steps, and your video joins a growing chorus of thank-yous from across Spokane.
Fifteen to sixty seconds. Upright or sideways, either is fine. You don't need to write anything down first.
First name and your neighborhood. That's all we ask for. You can leave your name off if you'd rather.
Every video is reviewed by a real person before anything is posted. Nothing goes up automatically.
Messages go out publicly on our accounts and are delivered directly to fire stations, base camps, and the supply posts where crews rotate through.
Send a message
If you're not sure how to start, try finishing one of these out loud.
Try this one
“To the crews who came here — thank you for ___.”
Let me start by sharing my gratitude to the wildfire crews
Share from your heart what you want them to hear.
Who is out there right now
No superhuman powers, no magical tools. Just grueling, risky work — shift after shift, on ground most of them had never walked before last Saturday.
More than fifteen hundred firefighters are working the Spokane Complex, drawn from two dozen states and counting.
They're running sixteen-hour shifts, day crew and night crew trading off so the lines are never unwatched.
On the first night they cut and held fire lines in forty-mile-an-hour wind, in the dark, on ground none of them knew.
About 850 structures were lost. Tens of thousands more are still standing because someone stood between them and the fire.
They're not from here. They came anyway — and they'll be back on the line before most of us are awake. Most will drive home without ever knowing whose kitchen is still standing because of them. Let's make sure they hear from us before they go.
Why we're doing this
Expressed gratitude is one of the most studied interventions in psychology, and it holds up.
In a landmark 2005 study, people who wrote and personally delivered a letter of thanks showed the largest happiness increase of any intervention tested — larger than journaling or counting blessings — with effects lasting about a month.
Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson · American Psychologist, 2005Across three randomized studies, people assigned to a grateful outlook reported better wellbeing than comparison groups on several measures. The effect on positive emotion was the most reliable finding.
Emmons & McCullough · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003Algoe's “find, remind, and bind” research shows that expressed thanks doesn't just acknowledge help — it creates a genuine relationship between the person who gave it and the person who received it. These crews arrived as strangers to Spokane. When a whole community says thank you, we stop being a place they were sent and become people they know.
Algoe · Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2012Ask us to take your video down at any point, including after it's posted. No explanation needed — just email us at thankyouproject@eagleviewcollab.com.
Sensitive submissions are reviewed with guidance from a Washington State licensed mental health professional, so that everyone's contribution is handled thoughtfully. This isn't therapy, and no clinical relationship is created by sending something in.
Your email is never published. Only your first name and neighborhood appear alongside your video, and only if you've said that's okay.
This project is narrow on purpose: messages to the crews. It isn't a place to document losses or share your story of the fire, and we're not equipped to hold those well.
If a minor appears in a video, a parent or guardian must be the one who submits it, and we'll email them directly to confirm before anything is published. We never show a child's face and neighborhood together, and never a last name, school, or age.
Sixty seconds is all it takes.
Pick up your phone, say thank you, and send it. We'll handle the rest.
Send your videoFree to download and share
We put these together for the Spokane Complex Fire. Print them, forward them, pass them along to anyone who needs them — no permission needed.
Shelters, pets and livestock, evacuation maps and alerts, federal and state disaster assistance, crisis support, utilities, and verified donation channels.
Download PDFHow Loss of Use / ALE actually works, what to expect on deductibles and limits, a first-steps checklist, free state help, and every wildfire relief loan program we could confirm.
Download PDFLast updated 08/05/2026 · This situation is moving fast. Confirm current status before relying on any of it.
This project is for gratitude. If you're carrying something heavier right now, these are built for that.
Please read this part. We're a volunteer community project, not a crisis service. We don't monitor submissions in real time and we can't respond to emergencies. Listing these numbers isn't the same as being able to help — if you need support now, please contact one of them directly, or call 911 if someone is in immediate danger.