Several engines responded to a structure fire shortly after 6 p.m. at Chief Garry Park in northeast Spokane.

That structure was a port-a-potty.

Firefighters doused the blaze in the 2500 block of East Mission Avenue shortly after it started. Witnesses reported seeing heavy smoke in the area, and the pungent fumes of outhouse aftermath wafted in the breeze.

A young boy who was nearby, clothed only in swim trunks, said several such fires have occurred in the neighborhood recently. Another neighbor, a man whose air conditioner was on the fritz and who came to the park to check out the engines, said some garages went up a couple years ago around the same time.

All that remained of the portable toilet Saturday evening was the charred roof near a softball field. Children were playing on an adjacent field when the final engine left the scene around 6:30 p.m.

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