Fire Press Release

Christmas Morning North Battalion House Fire

Incident #: 2011051911
Date of Incident: 12/25/2011
Issuing Officer: AC Schaeffer

Narrative:
On Christmas morning, December 25, 2011 at 5:33AM, 6 Companies of Spokane Firefighters, 1 Senior Ladder, 1 Heavy Rescue, 4 Engines under the direction of Battalion Chiefs Haworth and Brown, responded to a Structure Fire at 823 East Crown Avenue in Northeast Spokane. Spokane Firefighters arrived quickly to find smoke showing from the attic and first floor; as well as flames from the roof of a one-story duplex. The first arriving Chief declared a working fire and added an additional senior ladder and AMR Supervisor to the scene. Finding a quickly moving fire in one unit of the duplex, firefighters commenced a quick search for occupants while laddering and ventilating the ice-covered roof. A single adult male occupant of the fire unit was located outside the structure (awaken by a neighbor). An adult male and his son residing in the adjacent unit were quickly located and brought outside by firefighters. Arriving engine companies stretched pre-connected hoselines into multiple areas of the structure to confine the fire and halt its progress. The well coordinated effort of firefighters confined flames to one unit's attic area within just 1 hour. There were no injuries reported from either residents or firefighters.

Cause:
The cause of the fire was determined to be accidental and caused by a faulty fire place.

Damage:
Though loss from the fire was limited to predominately one unit; both units were rendered temporarily untenable due to the impact of the fire's impingement on utilities. One family was referred to the American Red Cross for interim placement assistance. Both families were incredibly fortunate as there were no working smoke detectors in the building.

# Firefighters Responding: 26

End Of Release
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