Smoke detector installed by firefighters saves woman from fire
A Spokane Valley Fire Department crew saved a woman’s life a week before a fire broke out in her apartment.
A crew responded to an apartment at 615 S. Woodruff Road in the first week of October on a medical call for a disabled resident. While there they noticed that she did not have a working smoke detector and installed one for her, said department spokeswoman Melanie Rose.
On Oct. 10 a cooking fire broke out in the woman’s apartment and she fell out of her wheelchair while trying to escape. “The stove was on fire and she was lying on the floor right in front of it,” Rose said.
The woman was banging on cabinets to try to get someone’s attention when her newly installed smoke detector went off, Rose said. A neighbor heard the alarm and came rushing to her aid, putting the flames out with a fire extinguisher.
The woman was not injured.
Other calls
from Oct. 5-18
Oct. 5: A brush fire was reported at Otis Orchards Elementary at 2:20 p.m. A student had put pine needles in the fork of a tree and lit them on fire. A trencher hit a natural gas lines in the 17300 block of East Broadway Avenue. Repairs took longer than usual because tree roots were in the way.
Oct. 8: A Suburban caught on fire at 2020 N. Argonne Road just before 9:30 p.m. The flames spread to a nearby tree. Crews responded to a water rescue near the Maple Street Bridge in Spokane. They searched the river for the reported victim for an hour and found nothing.
Oct. 10: The vinyl siding outside Happy Daze at 18325 E. Appleway Avenue caught on fire after an employee lit a barbecue too close to the building. A bystander used a garden hose to put out the fire before crews arrived.
Oct. 11: A second story deck caught fire at 2820 N. Cherry St. The building’s sprinkler system put it out. The fire was caused by cigarette embers that blew inside a storage closet on the deck.
Oct. 13: A grass fire was reported at 1000 S. Sullivan Road. The flames spread to a small wooden outbuilding, which was destroyed.
By the numbers: Crews responded to 568 calls in the two weeks of Oct. 5-18, including 465 calls for emergency medical services. Other responses included 24 car accidents, two downed power lines, a boy trapped in his bedroom when the doorknob broke, a child locked inside a car and a dog with its head stuck in a recliner.