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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fire leaves nine homeless

Compiled from staff and wire reports The Spokesman-Review

A Sunday morning fire in an apartment building left nine people homeless until inspectors can determine the extent of the damage, a Spokane fire official said.

Eight trucks and 28 firefighters were called to the two-story apartment building at 1421 W. Eighth Ave. at 7:22 a.m., Battalion Chief Ken Kirsch said. The fire started in a first-floor apartment, which was destroyed, and flames and smoke spread to the second floor.

“It was up over the roof when we got there, but they got it knocked down pretty fast,” Kirsch said.

Six other apartments sustained some damage, and the entire building was evacuated until it can be inspected for safety sometime today, he said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The Spokane chapter of the Red Cross helped relocate the inhabitants and provide them with necessities until they can get back in their apartments, Kirsch said.

Bomb scare closes street near mall

An illegally dumped bag of trash created a bomb scare that closed a street near NorthTown Mall on Sunday afternoon.

A black garbage bag that was partially filled and closed with tape was dumped in the mall’s parking garage shortly after noon by the occupants of a truck who quickly left the area, Spokane police spokesman Dick Cottam said. Mall security checked the bag and called Spokane police, who called in two technicians and a supervisor from the Explosive Disposal Unit, plus four patrol officers and a sergeant to control cars and pedestrians in the area. Part of Lidgerwood Street was barricaded by the city Street Department.

Explosives technicians eventually determined the bag contained books and trash, which they took “for possible future examination,” Cottam wrote in a news release, which also noted much of the work was done by people who had to be called in on overtime.

Two killed in crash were aviation students

Everett A weekend plane crash near Seattle killed two students from a special school for teenagers interested in careers in the aviation industry, school officials said Sunday.

A third person also died in the crash, authorities said. Officials did not release the names of the victims or say who was at the controls.

The two girls, both ninth-graders at Aviation High School, were participating in the Young Eagles program, which gives students their first light-aircraft flights with volunteer pilots from the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Seattle Times reported.

The small, single-engine plane crashed Saturday morning near Paine Field airport, about 20 miles north of Seattle.