Fire burns Potlatch ambluance, firetrucks

POTLATCH, Idaho – A weekend fire at the Potlatch Rural Fire Department garage destroyed an ambulance, damaged seven other emergency vehicles, including three firetrucks, and scorched the inside of the building before dying due to a lack of oxygen.

The fire caused about $150,000 in damage.

“It’s quite a miracle that the whole building didn’t go up,” said Kim Stubbs, the department’s assistant ambulance chief.

The last person to leave the building left at around 6 p.m. Friday, and the damage wasn’t discovered until late Saturday morning. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The garage doesn’t have smoke detectors, Fire Chief Dale Coy said, because it’s only used to house vehicles and no one is stationed in the building.

The department can still respond to fires, Coy said. It has borrowed an ambulance from the Moscow Fire Department temporarily, and the other vehicles – although blackened with soot — are still functional. The department has already used two to respond to a call over the weekend.