Firefighters battle apartment fire on South Hill, smoldering home in West Central

An apartment fire on Spokane’s lower South Hill killed two cats and destroyed one unit at the Madison Terrace apartments Monday morning.

The fire started on the ground floor of the apartment building, 1107 S. Madison St., just before 11 a.m. Monday, Assistant Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said. The fire was started by a faulty cellphone charger and caused smoke damage throughout the building, he said. Six adults were displaced from the building. The Red Cross is assisting them, Schaeffer said.

On Monday evening, Spokane firefighters extinguished a smoldering house fire in the West Central Neighborhood that they fought for nearly a day. They first responded around 8:30 p.m. Sunday.

Schaeffer said that fire, at 2225 W. Mission Ave., started because of old knob-and-tube wiring in the house. County property records indicate the home is owned by Shirley L. Bedeski.

The fire was smoldering behind the building’s walls, he said, and firefighters had to remove most of the belongings from inside the home to extinguish it.

“Fires (like that) can burn for a long time before they are discovered,” he said.

Firefighting efforts were hampered by the number of things inside the home, Schaeffer said.