Ride incident sends teen from fair to hospital
Three teenagers had scares over the weekend on two rides at the Spokane County Fair.
The rides were the Gravitron, which spins and uses centrifugal force to hold people against the sides, and the Zipper, which sends cars along a conveyor, then flips them over, according to Rich Hartzell, director of the Fair and Expo Center.
Thomas Waiken, of Spokane Valley, told KREM-TV on Sunday that he was just getting on the Gravitron when the operator started it too early and he hit his head on a metal beam. Waiken had to go to the hospital to get staples in his scalp, the television station reported.
There was a separate incident involving two teens on the Zipper ride on Saturday, when one or two bolts came loose, Hartzell told The Spokesman-Review.
A safety device caught the cages and there were no injuries, Hartzell said. “However, it was a scary thing for the kids involved,” he said.
Ride operators inspect the rides daily and there are regular state inspections during the fair, Hartzell said.
“For the numbers of kids who ride, they are doing an excellent job,” he said.
– Karen Dorn Steele
Spokane Valley
House damaged but fire injures no one
A fire started by a tiki torch on the back deck of a house in the Ponderosa neighborhood of Spokane Valley ignited the deck and damaged the second floor bedrooms and attic, according to Spokane fire dispatchers.
Ten engines from Fire District 8 and the Spokane Valley Fire Department responded to the fire at 5119 S. Bernhill Court off Dishman-Mica Road, which was called in at 5:39 p.m. There were no injuries and the fire is under investigation.
-Karen Dorn Steele
Selah, Wash.
Wildlife biologist killed in helicopter accident
A veteran biologist for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has been killed in a helicopter accident in Central Washington.
Officials say Rocky Spencer walked into the rotating blades of a sitting helicopter on Saturday afternoon in the Yakima River canyon.
Department spokesman Craig Bartlett says Spencer was with a team relocating bighorn sheep from private property in the canyon to a WSU research facility.
Bartlett says Spencer had flown on wildlife helicopters before, but this time the craft came to rest on slanted ground, causing the rotor blades to point downward more than usual, and they hit him when he stepped out of the helicopter.
– Associated Press