Fire damages home in north Spokane

Fire gutted a north Spokane home and damaged another Saturday afternoon, leaving one man homeless and exhausted fire crews struggling to extinguish the blaze in sweltering heat.

Homeowner Dean Campbell, who lives alone, escaped from his single-story home at 5727 N. Hemlock St. without injury after the back of the house caught fire about 3 p.m.

The fire caused extensive damage during the 20 minutes before crews extinguished it, said Spokane Fire Department Battalion Chief Bruce Moline. It spread throughout the ground floor and into the attic, destroying a porch, hot tub and tool shed in back. It also burned the siding and part of the roof of a neighboring house.

Despite help from extra crews and dousing with water and ice, one firefighter suffered heat-related injuries and was transported to Holy Family Hospital, Moline said. Some of the firefighters had already responded to three calls in the nearly 100-degree heat. The day before, a firefighter was treated for heat-related injuries after an apartment complex on North Wiscomb Street caught fire.

In Saturday’s blaze, firefighters were unable to save Campbell’s black cat, his longtime pet.

“The worst part is my cat didn’t make it out,” Campbell told firefighters.

Shirtless and clutching a cellular phone, Campbell watched from his neighbor’s lawn as firefighters cut holes in his roof. His cat lay under a light blue towel in the shade nearby.

A crowd of neighbors and curious onlookers watched firefighters work in the smoking remains of the building, which created a plume visible from the Maple Street Bridge.

Norm Elliot, 67, who lives across the street from Campbell, came outside when he smelled smoke shortly before 3 p.m.

“We thought the neighbor was barbecuing at first,” he said.

He then saw Campbell running across the street, calling 911 on his cell phone. Flames were visible in the back of the house, Elliot said.

Neighbor Bob Lafferty, who lives next to Campbell, was planning to wash the front of his house when the Elliots alerted him to the fire.

“So I grabbed my hose and went around there and started shooting it, but it was too hot,” Lafferty, 58, said. “I knew in just a few seconds that I couldn’t do anything for it. Just let it go.”

The fire initially covered a roughly 15- by 20-foot area at the rear of the house and looked like it started in an air conditioner, Lafferty said.

Flames later shot out an attic vent and a window on the north side of Campbell’s house. They spread to the vinyl siding and composite roof of Lafferty’s home just a few feet to the north, blowing out one of his bedroom windows.

“I think this house is gone,” Lafferty said of Campbell’s home. “It’s finished.”