Fire Routs Tenant Who’d Just Moved In

Darcy Low hadn’t been in his new apartment 24 hours when it was destroyed by fire Monday morning.

“I can’t believe it,” said Low, 40. “I just moved in yesterday and now I’m homeless again.”

Two dozen of his new neighbors at the Maple Manor Apartments, 1523 W. Fourth, were forced out of their homes shortly after 9 a.m. Firefighters with hoses traipsed through the building and across the roof.

The crews managed to keep the flames from spreading, but there was little they could do for Low’s onebedroom unit on the third floor.

“We had to knock walls down and chunks of the ceiling,” said Spokane Fire Battalion Chief Dick Schuerman. “There’s heavy smoke damage all through there.”

The fire started in the kitchen, but Schuerman said he wasn’t sure what caused it. No one was injured.

A few tenants huddled on the sidewalk in bathrobes and tried to stay out of the rain. One woman clutched a squirming black cat against her chest.

They were allowed to return to their apartments after about an hour. Low’s landlord planned to move him to one of the vacant units in the building.

Low said he left to buy some pop at the grocery store across the street. As he walked back, he saw smoke coming from the building. When he got closer, he realized it was drifting from his window.

“I think it was the stove that started it,” Low said, propping the grocery bag on his hip. “It wasn’t working right.”

He said some painters who were working on the apartment left a blue tarp over the stove when they left Sunday. When Low couldn’t get the stove to turn on Monday, he replaced the tarp because the painters planned to return later in the day. He thinks the tarp may have caught fire.

The flames were bright enough to be seen from Interstate 90, Schuerman said. One man saw the fire inside Low’s apartment and called 911 from his car phone.

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