Spokane Valley hotel room fire caught quickly, caused little damage

A small fire in a Spokane Valley hotel room early Friday morning caused minimal damage after an alert front desk clerk noticed smoke and called 911.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department was called to the Ramada Spokane Valley at 905 N. Sullivan Road just after 5:20 a.m. The wall mounted air conditioning/heater unit in a vacant room had an electrical malfunction, said assistant fire marshal Bill Clifford.

“It didn’t have a whole lot of fire,” Clifford said. “It never got hot enough to ignite anything else.”

The hotel does not have a fire sprinkler system because of the age of the building, Clifford said.

“Back in the day, it wasn’t required,” he said. “As soon as they do some remodeling, they’ll have to bring the whole thing up to code.”