Fire forces evacuation of two stores
A fire that melted a line of plastic shopping carts threatened to spread to the inside of a Coeur d’Alene department store Thursday evening and forced the evacuation two buildings – a Kmart and an Office Depot – at 201 W. Neider Ave.
Police and fire department investigators believe the fire is arson, the latest in a string of four apparently unrelated arsons to hit Coeur d’Alene this week.
According to Coeur d’Alene police, Thursday’s fire was set about 6 p.m. in a line of 18 shopping carts that were stored in a narrow passageway between the Kmart and the Office Depot.
“It was a giant fireball,” Coeur d’Alene Fire Department inspector Glenn Lauper said.
The heat from the fire was so intense, Lauper said, that it buckled the metal frame of a nearby doorway, ignited paint on the door and damaged the Kmart’s cinderblock walls.
“The concrete exploded, it was so hot. If anybody had walked out that door they would have walked into a wall of fire,” Lauper said.
A Kmart employee sprayed the inside of the door with a fire extinguisher. Engine crews from the fire department split up, half going into the Office Depot and half into Kmart to help evacuate shoppers and workers and to see if the fire had spread inside.
The shopping carts were completely consumed, and investigators said it appeared combustible material was placed in the carts and ignited. Damage was estimated at $6,500 to $10,000.
Detective Jason Matheney said Coeur d’Alene police want to talk with two men seen skateboarding near the shopping carts just before the fire. The men are not considered suspects, but police would like to learn what they may have seen.
Lt. Don Jiran said police also are searching for a maroon hatchback that is a Subaru Legacy or a similar vehicle. Two young men were in the car.
“This was not an accidental fire,” Lauper said.
In the past week, police and fire officials have investigated arsons in a slash pile, a shed at the city soccer complex and two portable toilets at a city park.
An 11-year-old boy is believed to have set the toilets on fire. Earlier this week police arrested 20-year-old Jason Griffin on two charges of arson. Griffin, police said, is suspected of torching a slash pile near some property on Lincoln Way that had recently been logged off, and with setting fire to a city shed at the soccer complex at Ramsey Road and Kathleen Avenue.