Worker Hurt When Gas Ignites

A worker was taken to the hospital Tuesday after a gas fire ignited in The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Steve Sawyer, an employee of C & R Plumbing, received burns to his face. He was treated and released from Kootenai Medical Center later in the day.

City building officials say Sawyer was not licensed nor properly supervised to be performing the work he was doing on a gas system when the blaze started.

The Coeur d’Alene Fire Department was called at about 11 a.m. Construction workers building new conference rooms for the resort were evacuated.

Sawyer had been working on a gas line in the resort’s pool pump room, said Bill Reagan, general manager of Hagadone Hospitality, the company that owns the resort.

Sawyer was burned when the pool heaters ignited residual gas that had leaked out of the pipe, Reagan said. The building’s sprinkler system immediately extinguished the blaze.

Sawyer did not have the required gas fitter’s license to be doing the work, said Ed Wagner, city building inspector.

Dan Rude, president of C & R Plumbing, said Sawyer was being supervised but was doing work that he had not been told to do.

“I don’t think he realized the potential of what he was doing,” Rude said.

, DataTimes