For weeks, fires across the Pacific Northwest have burned thousands of acres and sent plumes of acrid smoke into the sky, causing air quality alerts throughout the area and further afield across the US and Canada. Power has been shut off to residents around Spokane, as well as further south, to prevent electric equipment from sparking wildfires, Avista Corp., which provides service to four states, said on its website. The company operates 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of transmission lines through the region.