Owner recovers soggy bills from burned-out truck

A truck blaze, a smoking hot plate and a house fire were among the 147 calls Spokane Valley firefighters responded to between Sept. 27 and Tuesday morning.

Spokane Valley Fire Department responded to the truck fire at 2205 N. Woodruff about 5:12 a.m. Friday to find the cab and canopy engulfed in flames, said David Lobdell, assistant fire chief. The fire also had spread into the engine.

Investigators determined that the blaze was intentionally set, Lobdell said. The cause was undetermined, but an aerosol can was found in the cab that the owner said hadn’t been there when he last saw the truck.

Which leads to the interesting part of the story behind the fire, Lobdell said. The truck was stolen from 12303 E. Empire. sometime between Friday night and early Saturday. It was in a fenced area where the owner had left it with the keys inside. He was expecting someone to pick it up to work on the brakes.

But the truck thief missed something; $300 intended for the brake repairman was hidden under a floor mat, Lobdell said. Firefighters had to use a crowbar to pry the mat up after the fire was doused, but the money was still there.

“He was able to recover three water-soaked, but relatively undamaged bills,” Lobdell said.

On Saturday, food left on a hot plate filled a motel room with smoke at 6309 E. Broadway. A fire never ignited.

A smoke alarm was set off about 10:45 a.m. after a motel employee went into the room to clean it, Lobdell said. No one was in the room at the time, and the hotplate should never have been there.

About 7:19 a.m. Tuesday, a fire ignited by a fireplace insert at 13104 E. Desmut Ave. displaced two adults, two children and several pets, Lobdell said. The fire caused extensive smoke damage to the rancher-style home.

Other responses by the Spokane Valley Fire Department included 105 emergency medical calls, 17 vehicle crashes with minor or no injuries, 12 alarms sounding where there were no fires and one child locked in a car.