Several apartments evacuated after early-morning fire in Spokane Valley

As many as nine tenants were displaced after fire damaged several apartments early Monday in Spokane Valley.

Firefighters were called to the Aspen Apartments at 15821 E. Fourth Ave. shortly before 3 a.m. Spokane Valley Fire Marshal Greg Rogers said a family had woken to smoke alarms and fled their apartment. The fire apparently started on the family’s third-floor balcony and climbed into the attic, he said.

One woman who lived in that apartment was treated for smoke inhalation but didn’t require hospitalization, Rogers said.

The fire is listed as accidental and apparently started with smoking materials or a portable heater, Rogers said. It spread to three other apartments, and tenants are waiting for the city’s building department to assess the damage.

Rogers said crews quickly knocked down the fire, but he noted that the complex does not have fire sprinklers because it was built before the state required them.

“Definitely, if it would have had sprinklers, it would have been a slightly different outcome,” he said.