In brief: City Council OKs payout to paralyzed woman
The Spokane City Council on Monday voted 5-0 in favor of a $2.25 million settlement to a woman who became paralyzed from the waist down and suffered other serious injuries after she was struck by a city vehicle in 2010.
Patricia A. Searl, 71, was walking across Northwest Boulevard at Buckeye Avenue on Oct. 25, 2010, when she was struck by a city-owned pickup truck driven by city engineering services inspector Daniel J. Hirst. Police determined that Hirst should be cited for failing to yield to a pedestrian.
The city will pay about $915,000 of the settlement. The rest will be paid by the city’s insurance carrier, Princeton Excess and Surplus Lines Insurance Co. The deal includes attorney fees. The city is not admitting fault in the settlement.
Morning fire leaves man in hospital with burns
A man was burned in an early morning fire Monday in northwest Spokane.
Firefighters and paramedics responded to 5510 W. Woodside Ave. at 4:23 a.m. to find smoke and fire coming from the roof and garage of a single-family home, a news release from the Spokane Fire Department said. The fire also spread to an adjacent home to the west.
Paramedics provided emergency care to the occupant of the home before taking him to a local hospital.
The fire consumed the west side of the primary home, but firefighters were able to limit damage to the adjacent home to the soffit area, the release said. Vehicles parked in the driveway were destroyed.
Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire.
The resident of the home will be referred to the Red Cross for placement assistance when he is released from the hospital, the release said.
Damage was estimated at $250,000.
Cigarettes, arson cited in apartment fires
A fire that forced the evacuation of a large north Spokane apartment complex last week and left 15 people homeless has been blamed on cigarettes, but a second fire a short time later in a nearby unit appears to have been purposely ignited, authorities said Monday.
In the first fire, reported at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, investigators traced ignition of the blaze to a portion of a balcony containing smoking materials at the Autumn Ridge Apartments, 7022 N. Colton St., according to the Spokane Fire Department. The fire, determined to be accidental, spread up the vinyl siding from unit A205’s balcony, then burned through soffits and into the attic before firefighters could get it extinguished.
But the fire in a different unit in the same complex two hours later has been determined by investigators to have been intentionally set, Assistant Chief Brian Schaeffer said.
The unit was unoccupied and being used by maintenance crews for storage. The investigation is continuing.
Two city pools open, others slightly delayed
Some of the city of Spokane’s swimming pools will open later than expected due to repairs that were delayed by the weather.
City pools originally were due to open Monday, but only the Shadle and Witter pools met that deadline, a news release from the city of Spokane said.
Comstock and Liberty pools will instead open today. Hillyard and A.M. Cannon pools will open Thursday.