Fire destroys north Spokane business, damages another

A fire that appeared to have originated in a parked vehicle destroyed one business and damaged another Tuesday in a six-unit structure in north Spokane.

The fire was first reported about 11:25 a.m. Tuesday at 1811 E. Holyoke Ave., Spokane Fire Lt. Michael Beck said.

“On the way we could see a black column of smoke. We knew this wasn’t someone’s grill,” Beck said. “We upgraded all the units to a working fire.”

Crews arrived to find a fully involved fire in a building on Hollyoke Avenue, an area with mostly steel-roofed structures that are home to several small businesses.

Thomas “T.J.” Wheat, owner of Wheat’s Painting, said he was working Tuesday in a space he leases immediately adjacent to the fire when one of his crew arrived.

“One of my guys pulled up. He said there’s a fire next door,” Wheat said. “I went in and tried to hit it with a fire extinguisher, but it was too big. There was a car on fire.”

Fire crews responded in just a couple of minutes of the initial call.

As firefighters battled to contain the fire, they cut through large portions of the drywall and ceiling of the shared walls that separate the two businesses.

In addition to the drywall, efforts to douse the blaze caused extensive water damage to Wheat’s unit.

The name s of the business and its owner who suffered what appeared to be a total loss were not readily apparent. Efforts to reach him Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Wheat said the door to the leased space was partially open and nobody appeared to be in the unit when he initially battled the vehicle fire with the fire extinguisher.

Beck said crews initially responded from Spokane Fire Station 15 at 2120 E. Wellesley.

When they arrived, they discovered that the fire had spread to two other vehicles inside the space and stacks of tires, which complicated the situation.

“After we began the attack, we had to back out so if it does collapse on us that we would be safe,” he said.

After it appeared the structure would hold, crews then used a specialized chainsaw to cut holes in the steel roofing to make sure the fire didn’t spread through the attic to other units, he said.

“There were no injuries to firefighters and no casualties inside the fire,” he said. “Luckily, we were able to mostly contain it to the one unit.”

Of the six units in the building, only the one with the fire was destroyed, along with the damage to the unit that Wheat leases next door.

Stacks of partially burned tires and twisted metal remained outside where fire crews had pulled them out.

“With burning tires, it’s hard to get a good angle on them,” Beck said. “Once they get to burning, it’s hard to get them out.”

It took crews a full 50 minutes to contain the blaze, which is much longer than a typical house fire, he said.

“The fire investigator is trying to determine if the fire started in the close vehicle or one further back. But it appeared to have started in a vehicle,” Beck said.

By the end of Tuesday, fire investigators had not yet determined what caused the car to ignite.

“We don’t yet know the cost of damage because we have no idea of the value of things inside or the structure,” Beck said. “But that one unit is a total loss.”