North Spokane home gutted by fire

A small house was gutted by fire Saturday evening in north Spokane amid worries that the man who lived there may have been trapped inside.

Neighbors told fire crews that they believed that the man who lived inside the home at 4017 N. Martin St. was home, said Spokane Fire Department Battalion Chief Dave Haworth.

But two searches of the residence, which is about 400 square feet, didn’t turn up anything. Firefighters later learned that the man was not home at the time.

The home was gutted, Haworth said. “There was fire coming out of all the windows and the front door,” he said. “It burned pretty much all of it up.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.