High number of medical calls for the week

The week of Oct. 11 to 17 was busy but fairly uneventful for Spokane Valley Fire Department crews. “I think the biggest issue was the wind we had going on,” said assistant fire marshal Bill Clifford.

Firefighters responded to 260 calls, which is more than is typical. Emergency medical services calls accounted for 208 of those. “That’s a bunch this time,” Clifford said.

One call that was fairly minor could have easily been a major disaster. A car ran into a gas pump at Trent Avenue and Progress Road and knocked it over on the afternoon of Oct. 12. There was no leak, Clifford said. “The valves did what they were supposed to do,” he said.

There were six calls involving downed power lines on Tuesday, when the wind hit its peak. There were five brush fires reported during the week, but all of them were very small. Eighteen car accidents sent five people to the hospital.

A caller reported seeing a column of black smoke in the 16500 block of East Longfellow Avenue at 11:46 a.m. on Oct. 13. “They had a fire ring in the backyard and inside the ring was all kinds of things that shouldn’t be burned,” Clifford said.

Items being burned included creosote-soaked sections of telephone poles, aerosol cans and paint thinner, Clifford said. No one was home at the time. Firefighters put out the fire and the homeowners will be reported to the Clean Air Agency, said Clifford.

A small fire was reported on the exterior of a home in the 400 block of South Chronicle Road on Tuesday afternoon. The cause is still under investigation, Clifford said.