Fire erupts at West Plains transportation company

Dozens of firefighters from at least five different agencies converged Monday on a fire at a building containing petroleum products and commercial vehicles belonging to a Spokane transportation company.

Crews were called around 5:20 p.m. to Victory Transportation on West Thorpe Road where a building containing commercial vehicles and petroleum products was ablaze, said Cody Rohrback, chief of Spokane County Fire District 3.

Rohrback said firefighters arrived to fire coming out of the building on several sides. A number of explosions were reported.

The fire was knocked down by around 7 p.m. No injuries were reported at that time.

“A lot of agencies converged on this point really quickly, were able to contain the fire quickly, do some exposure protection and keep the fire from spreading,” Rohrback said.

The cause is under investigation. The building, meanwhile, is a total loss, Rohrback said; tractor-trailers parked alongside the structure may have sustained minor damage.

Rohrback said crews planned to spend the next several hours at Victory Transportation to monitor the building as they let the petroleum products burn out.

“Given the amount of petroleum products in the building, we’re trying not to add any water,” he said, citing environmental concerns. “We got a hazmat crew on scene right now. They’re assessing how much petroleum we got on the ground, and what we can do to contain that and try and minimize any spread of that product.”

Responding agencies included Spokane County fire districts 3 and 10, Spokane, Airway Heights and Fairchild Air Force Base.

The building’s ingress/egress was a challenge, Rohrback said.

“Firefighters did a really good job of coming in on all sides of the building and getting big trucks really close to the fire,” he said.