Blaze Damages Spokane Home Two-Year-Old Turns On Hot Plate; Firefighter Treated For Burns

A west Spokane family was left homeless Monday morning after a toddler turned on a hot plate, setting fire to the kitchen.

Within minutes, the rest of the house at 2410 W. Sinto was engulfed in flames. Fire department officials estimate damages at $90,000 to $120,000.

“TVs were exploding, windows were breaking, it wasn’t a pretty sight,” said 15-year-old Scott Raymont, who lived at the house with his mother, Julie. “I was in a state of panic.”

When Julie Raymont’s 2-year-old daughter turned on the hot plate, it set fire to some food still on it.

“The fire went into the exhaust fan and right up the wall, just like that,” Raymont said. She ran down to the basement to tell her three older children to get out of the house. By the time she came back upstairs to use a fire extinguisher, it was too late.

“Something blew in the kitchen. I think it was the microwave,” Raymont said.

Family members ran across the street to a neighbor’s house and watched as firefighters tried to save the one-story house. Dozens of neighbors watched as smoke rolled from windows and a hole yawning from the collapsed roof.

One firefighter, Jerry Shaw, suffered second-degree burns from crawling along the kitchen floor. He was treated at Deaconess Medical Center and released.

Raymont’s fiance, who gave his name only as Randy, held her as they watched. “We just got through paying the rent,” he said.

The building’s owner could not be reached for comment.

Raymont sniffed and tried to hold back tears. During the blaze, she bounced from calm quiet to crying and even to short stints of laughter.

“We found out we’ve had a lot of good friends,” she said. Within an hour of the fire, neighbors had offered her clothes. A friend of her fiance offered them food and a place to stay.

“All the kids got out safe, and that’s the important part,” neighbor Sandra Moran said as she watched mask-wearing firefighters crawl around the small house.

“She lost everything,” said Gene Pehan, a fire department battalion chief. “You’ve got to feel sorry for the poor gal.”

About seven years ago, the family lived in Bremerton. One of Raymont’s children, now 9, set a pile of laundry on fire in the living room. That blaze only melted part of a television set and left a charred spot on the floor.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo