Children Playing With Matches Leave Spokane Family Homeless

A Spokane family was left homeless after a fire caused by children playing with matches destroyed the upper half of their home late Saturday.

Kim Cabo, who lived at W1730 Boone, and her three children, ages 2, 4, and 7, all got out of the burning house safely.

The fire began about 7:47 p.m. in an closet upstairs in the gray two-story house, said Dick Schuerman, a battalion chief with Spokane Fire Department.

Firefighters knocked the blaze down within a half hour, but had to tear out most of the second floor walls and ceiling, Schuerman said. The first floor sustained water and smoke damage.

The family is staying with neighbors.