Family Of Five Escapes House Fire Unharmed Father Credits Smoke Detectors, Daughter’s Actions For Saving Lives

After a week of fires that killed six Spokane residents and injured three others, something finally went right Sunday.

Harold Heskett and his family may be shopping for a new home, but his family escaped a potentially dangerous fire early Sunday unharmed.

Heskett is a volunteer firefighter in the Waverly, Latah and Fairfield fire departments. His north Spokane home had four smoke detectors. His family has an escape plan in case of fire.

And his oldest daughter, Katrina, 11, has an incredible sense of smell.

“The situation could have been very, very bad,” Heskett said Sunday as he tried to clean up and salvage furnishings from his home at 2718 N. Ruby. “They’re very intelligent children. They knew what to do. They didn’t grab things like their clothes or toys.”

Instead, Katrina ran downstairs about 2:45 a.m. and woke up her parents.

“I flew up out of bed,” Heskett said. “I was moving before I hit the ground. By then, the alarms started going off.”

Heskett scooped up his 2-year-old daughter, Dallas Star, from the bedroom next door. He handed her to his wife, Katherine, who ran out the door with Katrina. Heskett then tried to find his son, Jon, 10.

“I grabbed a fire extinguisher and a flashlight,” Heskett said. “I didn’t know where Jon was. I went up the stairs. About that time, we ran into each other three feet from the top.”

Heskett and his son hustled outside. Then Heskett went back in the house a final time, called the Fire Department and tried to close off the doors.

But “I couldn’t make it up the stairs,” he said. “It was that hot; it was that smoky. I got out.”

Firefighters, called to the home at 2:49 a.m., arrived four minutes later and saw flames on the second floor, Fire Marshal Gary Miller said.

The fire started on the southwest side of the house in a space between the first floor ceiling and the second floor. The cause is unknown but could be a faulty heating system.

On Sunday, reams of burnt insulation were piled on the south side of the Hesketts’ yard. Shattered glass lay in the front yard. The house is unlivable, and the Hesketts are staying with Katherine’s mother in Latah.

Still, Heskett said he’s lucky. He credits his daughter - and smoke detectors.

“It takes just a few seconds to climb up a ladder and check a smoke alarm, make sure it works,” he said. “They may go off when you burn the toast or something, but just keep them in working order. That small inconvenience could save your life.”

Others, however, haven’t been so lucky in the past week.

On Friday, five members of a Spokane Russian family died in a house fire in Bellingham, and two others were injured. One Bellingham relative also was killed and six were injured. It is unclear whether the house had a working smoke alarm.

A 3-year-old boy died last Monday in a mobile home fire at Morgan Acres. Four family members escaped because of a quick-thinking neighbor, but the mobile home’s smoke detector had been installed improperly.

And a 7-year-old East Central girl was burned over 70 percent of her body last Monday when she accidentally ignited her dress.

“Everyone thinks it can never happen to them,” Heskett said. “It’s really tragic.”