Family pets die in Newman Lake fire
Discarded cigarettes are believed to be the cause of a catastrophic fire that destroyed a mobile home and killed two family pets the end of last month near Newman Lake.
The Spokane Valley Fire Department responded to the fire just before 11 a.m. Dec. 26 in the 7300 block of North Moose Lane. The single-wide mobile home was fully involved when crews arrived, said department spokeswoman Melanie Rose.
The three adults and one child inside at the time of the fire made it out safely, Rose said. A dog and a cat died in the fire.
“We found them after we put the fire out,” she said.
The cigarettes had been discarded just outside the home near some debris, Rose said. The family did not have insurance.
Other calls from Dec. 14-27
Dec. 15: Crews found an abandoned warming fire under the train trestle in the area of 9600 E. Trent Ave. at 5:15 a.m.
Dec. 16: A car slid into and damaged a natural gas meter in the 1200 block of South Liberty Drive, causing a leak.
Dec. 18: A resident in the 200 block of South Best Road reported that his chimney was red and glowing. The fire did not spread and the homeowner was advised to have it checked by a professional.
Dec. 19: Extrication crews were called to a car accident in the 100 block of North Liberty Lake Road. The car had rolled and landed on its roof. Crews were able to rescue the woman without cutting up the car. A resident in a first-floor apartment at 305 S. Liberty Lake Road reported flooding in her apartment at 6:15 a.m. The cause was traced to a running toilet in the third-floor apartment, which flooded that apartment and the one below it on the second floor before cascading down into the apartment on the first floor. Crews turned the water off.
Dec. 22: A 13-year-old girl awakened by a smoke detector saved her family from a chimney fire just after 1 a.m. in the 1400 block of South Woodward Road. The fire had spread to the wall of the home.
Dec. 27: A motor home fire was reported at Sprague Avenue and Chronicle Road at 8:40 a.m. The cause was traced to an overloaded extension cord, which had popped the breaker at the home it was plugged into three times that morning.
By the numbers: Crews responded to 627 calls from Dec. 14-27, including 475 calls for emergency medical services. Other responses included 70 car accidents, a water rescue that turned out to be an empty stolen car dumped in the river and a running car with a 3-year-old locked inside.