Blaze Rousts Four From Apartments

Four people were put out of their homes by an apartment fire in Spokane’s West Central neighborhood early New Year’s Day.

Firefighters were dispatched to the frame house-turned-apartment building at 2013 W. College Ave.

about 5:30 a.m. They were dealing with the College Avenue fire when the call for the El Toreador blaze came in an hour later.

The basement of the apartment building, the back outside wall and the wall of one apartment were damaged. Three of the five apartments were occupied. There were no serious injuries. The cause of the fire wasn’t available. Ken Shockley, who lived upstairs in the building, is blaming arson.

Shockley said he was watching videos about 3:30 a.m. and heard a “boom, boom, boom” outside. He ran outside and saw a man disappear down the alley, he said.

Shockley checked the basement and found a burning box. He threw it outside and called police.

A few hours later, the apartment building’s fire alarm went off and Shockley looked out his kitchen window to see flames shooting up the back wall. He ran downstairs, roused the neighbor living at the back of the building and then tried to awaken the two men living in the front apartment.

Both are hard of hearing and did not respond. Shockley tore back upstairs, grabbed a fire extinguisher, came back down and tossed it through their front window, he said.

That got their attention.

During that time Shockley says he saw two men in a nearby car watching the fire. One looked like the individual he saw after the first fire, he said.

The American Red Cross temporarily provided motel rooms for the building’s tenants, Shockley said. But once the power is turned back on, he’s coming back.

“This is my home,” he said. “I’m not budging.”