Burned Man May Require Grafts

A 44-year-old Spokane Valley man burned in a house fire two weeks ago may require skin grafts and several months in a Seattle burn clinic.

Dennis Parvey’s burns are more serious than paramedics first predicted. The father of two suffered third-degree burns on both of his arms while trying to fight the blaze. He suffered second-degree burns on his face and head.

The fire destroyed his West Valley home but didn’t injure his two daughters, who were asleep inside the house when it started.

That is Parvey’s one consolation, said Kathy Wilson, his longtime partner and mother of their two daughters.

“I told him, ‘You got them out of the house with not one hair singed,”’ she said. Parvey faces at least another month of hospitalization at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. If he requires grafts, he may be there until November or later.

“I think he’s doing wonderful,” said Wilson, who is staying with him in Seattle. “But I can tell he’s in more pain than ever.”

The pain is worse now than right after the fire, she said, because his damaged skin is sloughing off and exposing his nerve endings to air.

But he can walk and talk and sometimes even tries to boost her spirits with a joke, Wilson said. Their daughters, age 16 and 9, visited him for several days last week. They’re now back in school and staying with relatives, Wilson said.

The family, she said, hopes to move into an apartment complex near their former home. That would allow the girls to be close to friends and stay in the same schools.

The Aug. 20 fire burned all but one room in Parvey’s house. It killed six of the family’s seven pets, including a puppy Parvey had owned for less than two days.

The cause remains unclear.

Valley Fire Marshal Paul Chase hopes to talk to Parvey within the next few weeks. The self-employed RV repairman was working on a motor home in his driveway when the fire started around 4 a.m.

Fire officials think it started in the motor home and spread to the nearby house.

However it started, the fire quickly engulfed both the RV and house. It melted the garden hose Parvey used to try to extinguish it and caused more than $150,000 in damage.

Wilson remains optimistic.

“I’ve got Dennis. I’ve got my two girls. I didn’t lose anything,” she said.

Pat Sciuchetti can be reached at 927-2164 or by e-mail at pats@spokesman.com.

Want to help? A trust fund has been set up to help the Parvey family. Donations to the Parvey Family Fund may be made at the Washington Mutual Bank branch at 12005 E. Sprague.