Storm wreaks havoc

Sparked by downed power lines and lightning and whipped by winds, fires flashed across Spokane County late Friday afternoon.

An estimated 29 fires sprang up, many of them blackening acres of dry grass, igniting trees and threatening homes before most were beaten down by crews and the heavy rain that rode behind the 60 mph winds of a thunderstorm.

“The entire county’s out on calls,” one fire dispatcher told a crew that asked for help about 5:25 p.m.

Five mobile homes were destroyed at Silver Lake on the West Plains.

Fire raced across open spaces near Indian Trail Road, sparing homes but scorching a swath toward the old North Side landfill. Firefighters responded to blazes at the Hangman Valley Golf Course, at 77th Avenue and Regal Street, and 700 S. Cedar St.

In southwestern Spokane County, crews fought fires at Harris and Pine Springs roads and near Cheney Plaza Road.

Farther west, in Adams County, a fire burned 4,500 acres.

But the storm that fed the flames also helped douse them, with heavy rains and dime-size hail. Jonathon Fox, spokesman for the National Weather Service in Spokane, said the storm was the result of an “outflow boundary” – a wave of cool wind that precedes an incoming cold front, a precursor to a cluster of thunderstorms and precipitation that developed over the region.

Limbs snapped and trees crashed to the ground, with one hitting a house.

The storm also left thousands of homes without power. Avista estimated that 10,000 customers lost power in Spokane, Davenport, Colville, Deer Park and Coeur d’Alene. Spokeswoman Debbie Simock said most outages were in northwest Spokane.

Blowing dust near Ritzville forced drivers off Interstate 90 as visibility dropped to near zero, said Chris Golden of the Washington State Patrol. Several cars were involved in a crash in the westbound lanes, and the freeway was closed from 6 p.m. until almost 8 p.m.

Another accident on Highway 2 near Davenport temporarily closed that road, the WSP said. And one on state Highway 26 in Whitman County caused serious injuries, although details were unavailable late Friday.

As the storm traveled south, a giant dust cloud seemed to envelop southern Whitman County, reducing visibility to just a few yards. Along Highway 26, the grain elevator was barely visible from the road in the aptly named town of Dusty.

On the south side of Silver Lake, five mobile homes were destroyed when a tree fell on a power line, setting one trailer on fire within moments. High winds quickly whipped up the flames, engulfing the other four.

By the time firefighters extinguished the fire, all that was left of four mobile homes were heaps of twisted aluminum siding. Another was gutted, but remained standing.

“With the wind, it just jumped, jumped, jumped. There was nothing we could do,” said Chuck Groom, owner of the mobile home park.

The fire spread so rapidly that one resident was forced outside in her underwear, and neighbors gave her clothing.

No one was hurt, but nine people were left homeless, and a cat and pet duck were killed. Several other cats were rescued by their owners and good Samaritans who rushed over from a nearby restaurant.

One diner, Four Lakes resident Patti Newlin, blamed the extent of the destruction on the length of time it took Fire District 3 crews to reach the scene.

“It took them 30 minutes to get here,” she said, adding that the dispatcher got annoyed when she called back after the initial call to ask why the Fire Department wasn’t there yet. She got the feeling crews were slow because the fire was in a trailer park. “That’s the feeling I got, and it makes me really sad.”

But Fire District 3 Deputy Chief Bill Dennstaedt said it took crews six minutes from the time of the call to drive from Cheney to the mobile home park.

“It always seems a lot longer when you’re waiting on the other end,” Dennstaedt said.

Tonya Hammer’s mother, father and two brothers lost their home in the fire. Hammer, who was visiting, helped save a few possessions, including a small piano, but the family lost its computer. Both her parents are on disability assistance and they have no renters insurance.

“They have nothing,” she said.

One of the earliest fires started in a grassy area below power lines near a water tank just east of the intersection of Strong and Indian Trail roads. The wind pushed flames into a thick stand of trees and the fire quickly jumped Indian Trail Road before racing through brush and trees and stopping near the old city dump, just north of Nine Mile Road.

Firefighters in brush trucks could do nothing as the fire jumped into more trees with every gust. Spokane police eventually closed Indian Trail Road, jamming traffic all the way to Francis Avenue. Roadblocks stranded dozens of people eagerly trying to join family members or learn the extent of the fire.

The fire scorched a path directly through two subdivisions but did not appear to damage any structures before the wind stopped, rain came and fire lines stabilized.

About 20 minutes into the fire, 16-year-old Dan Zickler emerged from the billowing smoke and rode his Kona mountain bike just feet from the leading edges of the flame.

“I was up there riding around. Then all the sudden there was fire. I figured I better get out of there,” Zickler said. “I hope it doesn’t burn down. It’s fun up there.”

Sisters Jeannine Cleveland and Kim Conrad each had two children at their mother’s home, which was the closest structure to the fire. As they waited at the roadblock to pick up the children, Conrad described the fire’s approach.

“I was coming home, and the whole area was a black cloud blowing in the wind and my mom’s home is right here by it,” she said. “We stood here in the rain waiting to see what was going to happen.”

The wind pushed the flames to within a few hundred yards of the first homes on the northeast side of Indian Trail. Firefighters remained on the scene to mop up the blazes that continued to burn among trees.

Hallen Griffin, 74, stood in the rain, wind and smoke waiting for Gill Moberly, of the Spokane Police Department, to walk dozens of residents through the smoke to the other side of the fire and their homes in the Pacific Park Place subdivision.

“I’m selling my house the minute this is over,” Griffin said. “I’m not going to live near no trees or nothing, just dirt.”

Another northwest Spokane resident, Ralph Morgan, had sold his house at 1 p.m. Friday. Three hours later he was calling the new owner to say a tree had just fallen through the roof.

Morgan’s 19-year-old daughter was in the house, at 517 W. Columbia Ave., when the tree smashed into the house. She had been sitting on the couch, but got up to answer the door.

“Her boyfriend came over, and she opened the door to let him in. They were both standing in the doorway when the thing came down,” Morgan said.

The tree, two to three feet in diameter, crashed through the front window and came to rest on the couch, littering the living room with roofing and splintered wood.

“I’m just glad no one was hurt,” said the new owner, who did not want his name used. He added that he wasn’t in any hurry to move in.

A few blocks away, 2-year-old Emily Johnston was riding her plastic tricycle in the driveway of her home at 3011 N. Walnut St. when a 50-foot pine came down and pinned her.

“It came out of nowhere,” said her mother, Charity Johnston. “I was inside when I just heard the wind, I didn’t hear the tree come down … I looked out my sliding glass door and saw that tree and I said, ‘Oh God, where’s Emily?’ “

Then she heard her husband screaming from the driveway.

“I was lifting up branches left and right. I had my legs in there trying to get to her,” Johnston said.

Emily Johnston walked away with just a couple of scratches.

Around the corner from the Johnstons, employees with Alderson’s Tree Service were busy chopping a tree that fell into Michelle Boehmer’s yard, blocking the entrance.

The tree narrowly missed landing in the middle of the house, but it did take out her neighbor’s fence.

“She’s a college student, and her mom just came down from Alaska and helped build this fence about two weeks ago,” Boehmer said. “She’s not going to be very happy.”

In south Spokane County, a downed power line started a brush fire off Palouse Highway that burned nearly 40 acres, said Deputy Chief Dan Blystone, of Fire District No. 8. No one was hurt, and no structures were burned.

The blaze left a blackened path through the harvested hay fields along the hillside on Willow Springs Road, and cut in among five farmhouses. Area farmers used their own water trucks to help battle the flames, Blystone said.

The fire hit the bottom of Willow Springs Road and jumped the Palouse Highway, but firefighters stopped it from spreading toward Hangman Valley.

“We were lucky we had the rain,” Blystone said.

District 8 personnel also responded to a small structure fire and two other brush fires and a timber fire on Pine Hill Lane.

All the fires they fought were caused by downed power lines, Blystone said.

To the west, a small wildfire burned roughly 10 acres near Cheney Plaza Road, several miles south of Cheney, but heavy rains helped crews bring it quickly under control.

The fire started in a brushy, wooded area along Rock Creek, near Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge. It wasn’t clear Friday night what started the fire. Downed power lines had sparked several others.

Brian Anderson, operations officer for Spokane County Fire District 3, fielded calls and routed trucks around the region from the cab of his pickup at the Cheney Plaza fire.

“We’ve got about eight different fires right now, and every unit in our district is out,” he said. “I can’t keep up.”

By 6:30 p.m. all the fires were under control, he said.

Spokane Valley Fire Department doused two pole fires and two brush fires, including one on Mission Road in Liberty Lake that was ignited by lightning, said Fire Chief Mike Thompson.

The storm is blamed for a 4,500-acre bush fire in Adams County, the county sheriff reported in a press release. The blaze started about 5:30 p.m. and was out a few hours later. No structures were lost or injuries reported.