Washington Voices

A discarded cigarette started a fire that roared through a duplex in the 14500 block of East Sixth Avenue Tuesday. The woman living there with her 8-year-old son woke up around 10 p.m. to the sound of breaking glass, said Spokane Valley Fire Department Assistant Fire Marshal Bill Clifford. The fire started on the back deck and spread up the wall into the attic, Clifford said. The woman saw flames coming in through her glass slider door when she went to check on the noise, Clifford said. “As it really got ripping and going the heat busted the glass in the slider,” he said.

It seems people are getting a bit impatient for spring to arrive. Reports from the WSU Spokane County Master Gardener Clinic say folks are wondering why lawns haven’t greened up yet, when to uncover hibernating plants and why many ponderosa pines in the area are turning brown. To the first one. The early grasses are starting to green up. Unfortunately, most of them are the very cold tolerant bulbous and annual bluegrass and cheat grass at this point. These grasses will sprout and set seed before the middle of May and then go dormant. Lawn grasses like Kentucky bluegrass and the fescues generally don’t start growing until the soil temperature reaches about 45 degrees. We are getting close to that; I measured 45 degrees in my raised beds last weekend. As we wait, now is a good time to apply an organic, slow release fertilizer to the lawn so it has some nutrients to get started. It is also a good time to aerate the lawn to allow that fertilize deep into the soil.

Making her pitch: West Valley’s Jenna Trinkle deals a pitch against Deer Park Tuesday at West Valley. The Eagles lost 3-2. Their next game is today at noon at East Valley.

Spokane Elite Gymnastics was doing business in Spokane Valley for more than 30 years with several different owners before Nadine Burgess, 31, bought it in 2010 and changed the name to Spokane Gymnastics. The idea was to let students know the gym was open to every skill level, goal and age group. Now, she has purchased a larger building to house classes for children and adults.

Your chances of surviving a heart attack at Spokane Valley City Hall soon will improve. After learning about a new effort that uses smartphones to alert CPR-trained volunteers to life-threatening emergencies nearby, city leaders decided to purchase a heart-jolting automated external defibrillator that paramedics say can dramatically improve chances of surviving sudden cardiac arrest.

Chloe spent her entire life with one family. The older calico was surrendered recently to make way for a family member with a cat allergy. Volunteers at the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service shelter say she loves to be petted and should be in a home where she can be a mostly indoor cat.

It took almost 69 years, but Henry Lloyd Phillips finally received the Purple Heart and other medals he earned as a young private during World War II. Friends and family filled his Spokane Valley living room on Friday to watch as Col. Chuck Lehman USAF (Ret.) pinned the Purple Heart to Phillips’ lapel.

When Katherine Merck became the 2014 Miss Spokane Interstate Rodeo, she had some explaining to do. The 24-year-old Spokanite is a first-year law student at Gonzaga University and some of her professors were a little puzzled. “They looked at me like they didn’t understand what I just told them,” said Merck, sitting in the tack room at Spokane Equestrian Center just south of town. “I guess they didn’t expect that from one of their students.”

An oasis of peace is poised to open just off bustling North Division Street. Soon, Hospice House North will welcome its first patients. Since 1977, Hospice of Spokane has provided care and support for the terminally ill and their families. Serving Spokane, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties, the organization’s mission includes honoring the dignity of the terminally ill, educating the community about end-of-life issues and offering bereavement counseling services and support.