Valley firefighters called to aid shooting victim

Spokane Valley Department Fire crews responded to an incident in the early morning hours of March 5 that left a Spokane man with a bullet in his head. When firefighters arrived the man was not breathing, said Assistant Fire Marshal Bill Clifford.

“We got him out of the vehicle, put him on a backboard and started CPR,” he said. The man was identified by Spokane Valley Police as 26-year-old Shane Reilly. The man who allegedly shot him as he was driving has been arrested.

The rest of the week, March 3-Thursday, was a bit quieter for the department, with only one major fire. A mobile home fire was reported at 3:07 a.m. in the 930 block of South Nina Circle on March 4. A man decided to have french fries and left a pan of oil on the stove to heat and left the room, Clifford said. “When he came back his trailer was on fire,” he said.

The trailer was a total loss. The man was uninjured but his cat was killed in the fire. He does have insurance, Clifford said. “The good thing is, he made it out.”

There were two chimney fires reported and one vehicle fire that bystanders put out with a chemical fire extinguisher before firefighters arrived. Two illegal yard waste fires were also reported.

The department responded to a hazardous materials call at the Holiday Inn Express at 9220 E. Mission Ave., just after 2 a.m. on Thursday. “They had an unusual odor that was strong and they wanted it checked out,” Clifford said. It turned out that someone had sprayed water repellant on a pair of boots.

There were 16 vehicle accidents reported in the 215 calls during the week; of those 177 were EMS calls.