Apartment destroyed, no one injured in fire

Michael and Brenda Kane were visiting their 5-year-old granddaughter, who is fighting meningitis at Sacred Heart Medical Center, when they got the call Wednesday that their apartment was on fire.

“My son was here to visit. He saw the smoke and he called me on my cell phone,” said Michael Kane, 51, who attends classes at Whitworth College and serves as a minister at Bethel AME Church, which is next to his home.

“It looked like it started in the bedroom,” he said.

The Spokane Fire Department responded at noon to the apartment on the second story of the 56-unit Richard Allen Apartments at 621 S. Richard Allen Court. Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church owns the complex and uses it to provide subsidized housing, Pastor Lonnie Mitchell said.

“We were in the basement at the day-care center when we saw the smoke,” Mitchell said. “We all came running out to make sure no one was in there.”

Michael and Brenda Kane’s three daughters were at school and nobody was home at the time of the fire, which heavily damaged the apartment.

“No one was hurt, that was the blessing,” Mitchell said.

Chester Carothers, who manages the apartments for the church, said he saw the smoke and became worried because Brenda Kane was not at her job managing the day care.

“The heat blew the window out of the bedroom,” Carothers said.

He ran into the apartment building alone and used his key to get into the apartment. But all he could see was heavy smoke. He backed out.

Carothers was then joined by Robert Vernon, a 33-year-old carpenter who is working on the church’s new Emanuel Family Life Center. They grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran back inside for another search.

They both crawled into the apartment on their hands and knees, Carothers said. The smoke was already down to their level and they couldn’t see.

“I used the fire extinguisher to feel along the wall,” Carothers said. “I checked the bedroom door. It wasn’t hot.”

Carothers and Vernon opened the door to the master bedroom and could see the orange glow of flames in a far corner.

“Brenda is usually at work. I didn’t know at that point if Brenda had broken the window out to get out,” Carothers said. “That was my main fear – that someone was inside.”

Vernon, who works for Town & Country Builders, declined to be interviewed. But Carothers, a retired Air Force jet engine mechanic, credited Vernon for helping him in the blinding smoke.

“He’s the one who had enough sense to tell me to get out,” Carothers said of Vernon.

Fire Investigator Lt. Chris Phillips interviewed Michael Kane, who said he left a couple windows open for ventilation, but he didn’t leave any burning candles or incense, and he doesn’t smoke.

Nobody was home and the door to the apartment was locked. The apartment was insured, Kane said.

“I’ll have to look at all the electrical connections,” Phillips said. “I was hoping when I got the call that it would be an easy one. But I’m going to have a long day.”

As firefighters punched holes in the roof to let heat escape, several friends and family members came up and hugged Michael Kane and offered him support.

“We all have our lives and our faith and that’s what is most important,” Kane said.