Firefighter Spends Days Off In His Other Fire House

Firefighter Sparky Sparkes isn’t about to get out of the kitchen because it’s hot.

Sparkes spends his time between fire calls whipping up cordon bleu for the firefighters at Spokane Fire Station 2, on North Foothills Drive and Hamilton.

And since the November opening of Sparky’s Fire House Subs, W926 Indiana, the 24-year-old spends his days off whipping up East Coast style subs.

Sparkes and his partner, firefighter Vince Azzinnaro, make submarine sandwiches patterned after the sandwiches Sparkes made as a teenager in a sub shop.

“When we started I didn’t know anything about business, I just knew people loved the kind of sandwich we made in Walla Walla,” Sparkes said.

Sparky’s Fire House Subs opened in mid-November. Already, Sparkes said, business has been triple what he expected. Sparky’s employs six people.

It opened in a part of the store that used to be occupied by Lukas Automotive, which closed last year. A smoke shop and a pawn shop are about to open in the other half of the old automotive shop.

The restaurant is decorated with firefighting memorabilia - including a mannequin sliding down a brass pole, dozens of little trucks, and a growing collection of T-shirts from fire departments all over the country. Rex Peterson, a Spokane paramedic and firefighter, painted a mural of firefighters working.

All the sandwiches are named after the squads, ladder trucks and special teams of the Spokane Fire Department. The most popular sandwich, so far, is the Haz Mat, which has ham, salami, pastrami, pepperoni, cotto salami, roast beef, turkey, baloney and three cheeses.

“It should be called the cholesterol special,” Azzinnaro said with a grin.

The firefighting decor interests people and they come in to give Sparky’s subs a try, Azzinnaro said. Once in the door the sandwiches had to be good enough to keep the people coming back, Sparkes said.

Using extra heavy doses of oil and vinegar and salt and pepper, Azzinnaro says, separates Sparky’s subs from the rest.

“They just have this tang,” Azzinnaro said, as he assembled a meaty special.

Azzinnaro, a 28-year Spokane Fire Department veteran, teamed up with Sparkes after listening to the firefighter of two years talk about his restaurant dreams.

He tested sandwiches on his fellow firefighters and brainstormed decor ideas with them. Azzinnaro was so impressed by Sparkes’ ideas that he signed on as his partner.

With only two years left before he retires, Azzinnaro sees the restaurant as his second career.

“I think any kind of fast food is popular with people,” Azzinnaro said. “We live in the kind of society where everybody is working and everybody is busy. People just don’t have the time to cook.”