Tenants uninjured by apartment fire

No tenants were injured Friday afternoon when fire heavily damaged their eight-unit apartment building in north Spokane, but a firefighter was taken to Holy Family Hospital for treatment of what Assistant Spokane Fire Marshal Kris Eastman described as “heat-related concerns.”

More than 40 firefighters braved heat well in excess of the ambient 100-degree temperature to control the two-alarm fire at 6901 N. Wiscomb St.

The fire was limited to one building of the Lyons Glenn apartment complex at the corner where Wiscomb joins Lyons Avenue and Addison Street.

The cause was under investigation, but tenants speculated about electrical wiring because the fire appeared to have started in the attic.

At least two animals – a cat and a dog – also survived the fire, but Colleen Thornton feared the effect on her medically fragile mother and stepfather when they found out their apartment was destroyed.

“They’re not going to be able to take this,” Thornton said, crying. “My mom is fighting two kinds of cancer. This is going to devastate her. And my stepdad had a massive stroke three years ago.”

Colleen Thornton said her parents – Carolyn Thornton, 60, and Rich Higby, 59 – were on a camping trip with friends when the fire was reported shortly before 5 p.m.

“My mom sold her house because she was worried about fires,” Colleen Thornton said.

She and her brother, Kevin Higby, and her teenage daughter, Mikayla Thornton, also lost their home. They lived with Carolyn Thornton and Rich Higby.

Their townhouse apartment was next door to the one shared by John Luce and his girlfriend, Pat Suttles, where the fire appeared to have started.

“The whole upstairs is gone on the back side,” Luce said. “The fire came from upstairs in the attic somewhere.”

He said he had just taken a shower and was sitting on his patio, waiting to go to work at 5:30 p.m., when Suttles told him someone banged on their door and said the building was burning. They escaped safely, but feared their cat, D.C., was killed.

Then neighbor John Patterson, from another building in the complex, walked up with good news.

“I’ve seen your cat, and the cat is fine,” Patterson said. “It’s in the living room going nuts.”

The fire was under control at that point and the apartment door was open, but Luce said his pet, D.C., was an indoor cat and afraid to walk out the door.

Luce said he and Suttles had fire insurance. Colleen Thornton wasn’t sure whether her parents had insurance, “but, knowing my dad, yes.”

Their two apartments were the most heavily damaged, but 14 tenants in all eight units of the building were displaced. Red Cross officials were on hand to provide shelter and other assistance.

Fire officials said one tenant left his black Labrador service dog behind when he left for kidney dialysis, but the dog was not injured. Firefighters let the dog remain in the apartment, at the less-damaged end of the building, until the tenant returned.