Teenager Alerts Family To House Fire

A Spokane teenager’s quick thinking helped her family escape a burning house Monday night, fire officials said.

The family of six was shaken by the 9 p.m. blaze at W528 Park Place across from Corbin Park, but no one was injured.

Margaret Davis, 17, one of four children who lives at the home, said the rest of the family was downstairs watching TV or reading books when she heard a loud bang from the second floor.

“I was wondering what was going on,” Davis said.

When she went upstairs to check, she groped for a light switch and discovered a wall near the stairwell was extremely hot.

“I knew it was a fire,” she said.

The teenager ran to tell her mom, who called 911 before helping her husband evacuate the children.

Minutes later, firefighters had doused the blaze. Damage, estimated at $15,000, was confined to a single upstairs bedroom, according to Spokane Fire Chief Rich Hansen.

The fire was sparked by either a stereo or electric fan, Hansen said.

Hansen said the family did the right thing by getting everyone out safely and waiting for fire crews to arrive.

“This family was extremely lucky,” he said. “There was a smoke detector but it appears there was not a (working) battery.”

, DataTimes