Spokane fire lieutenant, missing since blaze, called true friend

Spokane Fire Lt. Terry Canfield, missing since a Tuesday morning triple-fatal fire, was called a true friend on Wednesday by those acquainted with him.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office was conducting autopsies on the three fire victims Wednesday afternoon but had not made any findings public by Wednesday evening.

The charred bodies of two males and a female were found in the house. Friends and neighbors weren’t waiting for positive identification before grieving the possible loss of Canfield.

“He was just a super guy,” said Allen Battle, a friend of Canfield’s. “I was always proud to be his friend.”

Fire and Spokane sheriff’s investigators returned Wednesday to the scene of the fire that ravaged Canfield’s home and also destroyed an outbuilding.

The outbuilding fire may have started separately from the house fire, officials said.

Deputy Mark Gregory, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said investigators consider the fires suspicious, but they had not ruled them as arson as of Wednesday evening.

“The fire seems suspicious and we are investigating that,” he said.

Canfield, a 28-year veteran of the Spokane Fire Department, lived at the home at 20 E. Chattaroy Road with his wife, Lisa Canfield. The house is southeast of Deer Park.

Also staying at the home was Lisa Canfield’s adult son from a previous marriage, according to Merrily Lowry, a neighbor who went to the same church as the Canfield family. Lowry said Canfield’s niece also had been staying at the home recently and had attended church with them.

Lowry identified the son as John Constable, who had been staying in a camp trailer on the property but recently started sleeping on the couch.

Within the Spokane Fire Department, Canfield was assigned most recently to an alternative response vehicle, which moves across the city responding to calls. Before that, he was at Station 13 at 1118 W. Wellesley Ave.

The fire was found by firefighters after a nearby resident reported a possible illegal slash burn at 2:08 a.m. Tuesday.

Canfield, 59, has not been heard from since the fires, officials said.

District 4 Fire Chief Randy Johnson said a fire and a criminal investigation are moving ahead.

By Wednesday, Canfield’s Facebook page was filled with multiple postings from people who know him.

James Bennett, a fire commissioner in Spokane Fire District 9, described Canfield on the Facebook page as the truest friend anyone could have.

Battle said in an interview that he met Canfield about seven years ago through a local website for professionals and small-business people.

Not only has Canfield served on the fire force, he also has done comedy, been a training consultant and been involved in a speaker’s bureau, Battle said.

Lowry said the Canfields have been known for generosity and helping others.

“He is just the sweetest, most giving guy,” Lowry said.

The Canfields attended the landmark Chattaroy Community Church, where Terry Canfield did a comedy routine at the church talent show, said Lowry, who is also a church member.

She said the Canfields, both longtime residents of the neighborhood, became a couple after both of them ended previous marriages. They married in 2012. Records show that Lisa Canfield turned 52 last October.

She said family members seem to get along. “As far as we know, there was no big problem,” Lowry said.