Spokane sourdough bakery loses loaves in Upriver Fire evacuation
Fire evacuation cut power at Mama’s Sweet and Sourdough Bakery, costing Tina McGlothlen about 100 loaves. A family member saved her starter, keeping the bread program alive.
Tina McGlothlen lost about 100 sourdough loaves when the Upriver Fire forced her out of Mama’s Sweet and Sourdough Bakery and knocked out power at the Spokane shop. She did not take the starter with her during the evacuation, but a family member later grabbed it, keeping the bakery’s bread program from going dark.
That starter matters because this was never just a side hustle with a mixer and a bag of flour. McGlothlen has run Mama’s Sweet and Sourdough Bakery since 2023, and Washington business records show Mama’s Sweet & Sourdough Co LLC was filed on July 21, 2023. She said she spent about six months making bad bread before she figured out how to make the business work, which is exactly why a disruption like this hits so hard: sourdough runs on a living culture and a tight schedule, not on guesswork.
The bakery’s regular rhythm is already narrow. Its website says loaves are dropped on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Spokane Olive Oil while supplies last, which leaves little room for a fire, a power cut or a sudden evacuation to interrupt the cycle. When the shop went dark under Level 3 evacuation orders near the Upriver Fire area, the day’s dough did not have a way to finish, and the loaves in the queue were lost.
McGlothlen returned to sell at the Kendall Yards Night Market, where she said support from customers and family helped the recovery. The 2026 season runs Wednesday evenings from May 20 to September 16, 5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and organizers say the market has operated for more than 10 years along the Spokane River Gorge. That kind of steady public event can be a lifeline for a small sourdough business trying to make up time after an emergency, batch by batch.
By June 24, the Upriver Fire was 213 acres and 100% contained, after InciWeb said on June 17 that Level 3 evacuations remained in place closest to the fire perimeter. The lost loaves were a setback, but the starter survived, and in sourdough terms that is the part that lets the whole bakery come back. As McGlothlen put it, “Humanity matters.”
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