Boarding house resident jailed on arson charge
The Spokane Valley Fire Department helped a man move out of his boarding house this week, but not to the destination he had in mind.
Deputy Fire Marshal Bill Clifford said the 32-year-old man set fire to his bedding Sunday in hope of being moved to another special-needs care facility.
The disgruntled boarder, Brian H. Struthers, was taken to the county jail instead.
Deputy Fire Marshal Paul Chase arrested Struthers Monday on suspicion of first-degree arson after Struthers returned to the Sessions Residential Care home at 22 N. Adams Road.
Struthers had left the home when the fire was detected at 12:20 p.m. Sunday, but he returned Monday and a caregiver talked to him until a police officer arrived.
Struthers told Chase he was angry at state officials for not moving him to a different home and thought the fire would get him moved, according to Clifford.
The fire in Struthers’ bedroom caused dense smoke and an estimated $5,000 worth of damage, but Clifford said the home remained habitable. A smoke detector alerted others in the home and a fire sprinkler controlled the fire until firefighters arrived.
No one was injured. Clifford said the caregiver escorted three residents out of the home, and no one else was there at the time. The home is licensed for 16 men with special needs, but has only 10.
Staff members reported that Struthers had no history of arson, but had increasing behavioral problems over the previous month.
Clifford said the incident was the sixth residential fire in six years in which a fire sprinkler controlled the blaze until firefighters arrived. In each case, he said, damage was mostly confined to the room in which the fire started.
The other five fires were kitchen accidents.
The boarding house fire was one of 215 calls the fire department logged in the seven days that ended Wednesday. It was one of two unusual calls on Sunday.
The other occurred at 4:06 a.m., when firefighters were called to 8851 E. Trent Ave., where a car was high-centered on a telephone service box. The car’s wheels were still spinning when firefighters arrived.
Clifford said the driver, who was still in the car, was suspected of “overindulging in alcohol.” Firefighters took his keys and engaged the car’s parking gear while waiting for police to arrive.
One might wonder whether it’s difficult to high-center a car on something as large as a telephone box, but Clifford said “they kind of shrink a little bit when you run over them.”
The incident was among 16 vehicle accidents that sent four people to hospitals with minor injuries.
The boarding house arson was the most serious of four structure fires. The next most serious was reported shortly before 10:30 p.m. Sunday in a house at 9520 E. Boone Ave.
Clifford said a resident put what she thought was an extinguished candle in a plastic waste basket. The container caught fire, scorching and smoking up bathroom walls.
The resident put out the fire with an extinguisher, and no one was injured.
Children playing with matches are suspected in three small fires in grass and brush that were reported at 1:15 p.m. Sunday at 2820 N. Cherry Road, on the hill behind the water tower near the YMCA building, Clifford said.
He said transients were suspected in an unattended campfire that was reported Tuesday afternoon at 8300 E. Appleway Ave.
One of four hazardous-materials calls involved an apartment at 13615 E. Trent Ave. that filled with natural gas about 7:45 p.m. Oct. 23. Clifford said someone turned on a stove with an unlit pilot light.
Also, firefighters were called to the Eljay gasoline station at 7707 E. Valleyway Ave. last Saturday evening to put absorbent on diesel that was leaking from a pump.
The single call for general service came about 8:15 p.m. Oct. 23 from the Costco store at 5601 E. Sprague Ave. Clifford said firefighters closed a valve to stop a refrigerant leak in a grocery department cooler.
There were 167 calls for emergency medical service in the period and 18 automatic building alarms, all false or accidental.