SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane is no stranger to both heat and wildfire smoke and the health issues that come with both.

Now two new plans from Gonzaga's Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment hopes to provide some guidelines to keep people safe and healthy.

According to the institute, nearly 20 people died in Spokane during the extreme heat dome of 2021.

According to Dante Jester, who works as the institute's Climate Resilience Program Manager, that event was a wake-up call.

"Climate change isn't some future thing that we're like preparing for. It's something here now that we need to work really hard to keep people safe from," said Jester.

The Institute came together other agencies like the City of Spokane and the Spokane Regional Health District to form the Spokane Community

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