Fires claim man, then his home

Two fires erupted at a Spokane home early Friday. The first resulted in the death of a retired Spokane County Sheriff’s Office sergeant.

The second blaze gutted what was left of his home.

Spokane firefighters found 56-year-old Rick Starr in his home at 104 W. Park Place, just 10 feet from the front door, shortly after midnight. Medics tried for more than 15 minutes to revive him before pronouncing him dead at the scene.

The first blaze started in his kitchen on a table and was determined accidental, said Lt. Chris Phillips, an investigator with the Spokane Fire Department. No information was immediately available as to what started the fire.

Starr’s cause of death will be determined by an autopsy, Phillips said.

If his death was a result of the blaze, it would be the third fire fatality this year, said Jan Dougherty, public education officer for the Spokane Fire Department. That’s the most since 2001.

Spokane firefighters were called back to the two-story brick home about 7:30 a.m. on a report of a second fire.

The two fires were not connected, Phillips said. The second fire started in a completely different area, an upstairs bedroom.

“We found the front door ajar,” said Phillips, who had been at the home until 5 a.m. investigating the first fire. “Unfortunately, recently burned homes are often looted.”

The cause of the second fire remains under investigation.

Neighbors described seeing flames shooting out up to 15 feet from the front and back windows on the upper level during the second fire.

“I heard the ammunition going off inside,” said Stuart Lee, who lives a few houses to the north.

Starr was thought to live alone in the brick home.

Starr retired from the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office on June 30, 2003, spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said. He was hired in 1982 when the Sheriff’s Office absorbed the Deer Park area.

Before he retired, he fell through a plate-glass window and as a result suffered some ongoing health problems that led to his retirement.

“He was a good old boy,” said Lee, Starr’s neighbor.