Response to sledding injury includes gift certificate

Spokane Valley Fire Department responded to 190 calls between Dec. 6 and Monday.

Firefighters responded to five fire incidents including a smoldering trash fire inside Sunshine Gardens Retirement Center, a truck fire, a dishwasher and a mobile home blazes.

The most significant was the mobile home fire. At 4:43 p.m. on Dec. 7, the wooden beams in the ceiling of a mobile home ignited while the residents were using the fireplace, said Assistant Chief David Lobdell. The blaze at 17208 E. Coach Drive caused an estimated $40,000 damage.

The department’s other responses included 13 alarms with no fire, eight false alarms or good intent calls, 17 motor vehicle crashes and nine service calls, Lobdell said. Among the service calls were two downed power lines, a ruptured gas line, a child locked in a car and a babysitter locked out of a house.

“The firefighters were able to wake one of the children to let her back in,” Lobdell said.

Spokane Valley Fire Department also had 130 emergency medical calls. Chief Mike Thompson was particularly proud about how his men handled the circumstances of one of them.

A young boy was hurt in a sledding accident at Mission Park over the weekend. When firefighters arrived to help him, he pleaded with them not to cut off his jeans.

He told the fire crew it was his only pair of jeans, firefighter/paramedic John Leavell said. The firefighters helped the boy. Then Leavell went to Old Navy to buy him a $150 gift certificate. The money used to buy the certificate came from the Spokane Valley Firefighter Benevolent Association, which was established to use for situations similar to that involving the injured boy.

“When we gave the gift certificate to his mom she replied: ‘I don’t think his jeans cost that much,’ ” Leavell said. The firefighter explained there was extra money to buy other clothes her son might need.