Fire Forces One-Day Closure Of School
Students at a Spokane Valley middle school were sent home Monday morning after a small fire in one of the classrooms forced the school’s closure.
A fire in the art classroom chased children from Mountain View Middle School, 6011 N. Chase, about 8 a.m.
Firefighters quickly dowsed the fire, but smoke still filled a few classrooms and lurked in the hallway.
School officials made the decision to close the school two hours later, said East Valley School District Superintendent Chuck Stocker.
Students were not allowed back into the building on Monday. Instead, faculty members retrieved books, house keys and bags from student lockers.
Large fans aired out the building Monday afternoon, Stocker said, and school reopened Tuesday.
Art class is being held in the home economics room for the remainder of the year, which ends Friday, said Mountain View Principal Susan Kincade.
A motor on an air handling unit overheated, sparking the fire, said Eric Olson, a Valley Fire inspector.
Flames consumed the motor, crawled across the insulation and burned a portion of the ceiling in the classroom.
Damage was estimated as high as $6,000, Olson said.
Convenience store robbed
Three men armed with a rifle robbed a Valley convenience late Sunday, making off with an undisclosed amount of money.
The clerk at the Maid O’Clover, 5821 E. Sprague, told deputies the robbers came into the store about 11:45 p.m. He described all three as Hispanic, said sheriff’s Lt. David Wiyrick.
One of the robbers pointed a rifle at the clerk and ordered him to lay on the floor, deputies said.
Another jumped over the counter and instructed the clerk to open the cash register.
After opening the register, the clerk was ordered back on to the floor and the robbers ran out of the store.
The clerk told deputies the man with the rifle had painted his face white, was wearing a black jacket and black leather gloves with the fingers cut off.
Descriptions of the other two robbers were not given.
Car chase ends in arrest
A 19-year-old Valley man was arrested Saturday night after a high speed chase through a residential neighborhood.
The chase began about 7 p.m. when a car reportedly going 80 mph sped past deputies working a traffic emphasis patrol at 23rd Avenue and University Road.
Deputies said the car raced south along University and turned east on 28th Avenue, a street crowded by pedestrians and cars. There deputies, who were concerned about public safety, slowed down, Wiyrick said.
The car then ran a stop sign as it turned north on Bowdish Road and spun out in the gravel along the roadway, deputies said.
There, deputies arrested Brian S. Jamison, who gave his address as 1314 N. Herald.
Jamison was booked into the Spokane County Jail for felony attempting to elude a police vehicle.
, DataTimes