Storms cause small fires, outages

A series of thunderstorms rumbled through the Inland Northwest on Saturday, striking ground with well over 1,000 bolts of lightning and knocking out power to 4,000 homes and businesses in north Spokane.

In northern Spokane County, the lightning sparked three small grass fires and may be responsible for a fire that damaged a home, said Bob Anderson, chief of Spokane County Fire District 9.

The storms were spotty throughout the region. Some places got drenched, while others were missed entirely.

“It looks like it just missed downtown” Spokane, said Matt Fugazzi, Spokane meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Hoopfest participants felt a brief rain and heard only distant thunder.

Meanwhile, one weather service volunteer in eastern Okanogan County measured more than 1 1/2 inches of rain. “It looks like he got run over by about four different storms,” Fugazzi said.

By Saturday evening, Avista crews had power restored to about three-quarters of the customers affected by outages. Company spokeswoman Debbie Simock said crews hoped to have the work completed by late Saturday or early today.

Neighbors told firefighters they thought they heard thunder just before smoke started rising from a two-story house on the 600 block of West Falcon Avenue.

Anderson said that doesn’t prove lightning caused the fire, but “that’s one possibility that’s under investigation.”

The fire was contained to an attached garage, but the rest of the house was damaged by smoke, Anderson said. The owners were not home at the time.

Fugazzi said today’s weather will remain unstable, though slightly warmer than Saturday’s high of 78. Any thunderstorms will most likely be in mountainous areas, he said.