Girl pulled from 12-foot hole at construction site

Among 428 calls in the fortnight that ended Wednesday, Spokane Valley firefighters pulled a 15-year-old girl out of a 12-foot-deep hole and treated an 11-year-old boy whose face was burned by an exploding aerosol can.

Inspector Bill Clifford said the girl was walking in the 18700 block of Appleway Boulevard on April 12 when she fell into a 3 ½-foot diameter hole at a construction site. It was about 7:30 p.m. and getting dark, and the girl didn’t see the hazard, which was covered with a thin sheet of plastic, Clifford said.

He didn’t know how firefighters were alerted, but said they used a ladder to free the girl. She refused treatment for a shoulder injury, Clifford said.

The boy whose face was burned had been playing with a cigarette lighter and a can of TAG body spray that exploded at home at 15700 E. Sixth Ave. on April 16, Clifford said. The boy suffered first- and second-degree facial burns, for which he was treated and released at a hospital.

On April 11, firefighters helped make sure a 3- to 4-year-old boy who was running down Valleyway Avenue, toward Park Road, got safely to his father’s house. The boy said he had gone to his mother’s home after getting out of preschool, but she wasn’t there so he decided to go to his father’s house, Clifford said.

Three of four hazardous-materials calls involved minor gasoline leaks from vehicles, but the fourth was a mystery solved with testing equipment brought in by the Spokane Fire Department.

A Spokane Valley code inspector called a lawn care company and then the Spokane Valley Fire Department on April 16 to help investigate a substance on a field at 11100 E. Maxwell Road. It turned out to be yeast, Clifford said.

More typical calls involved adults locked out of their house and a couple of children accidentally locked in a car.

There were 11 illegal bonfires and 22 structure fires. An April 13 house fire at 11207 E. Broadway Ave. caused an estimated $20,000 damage. Clifford said wiring is suspected, but the cause remains under investigation.

On April 19, an overheated radon gas-removal fan started a fire at 15700 E. Sixth Ave. that caused an estimated $7,000 damage.

Clifford said other calls included seven vehicle fires, six brush fires, 352 emergency medical calls and 20 alarm-system calls that were mostly false or minor.