Windblown Fires Destroy Two Houses Four Blazes Keep Crews Busy, But No One Hurt
Brush and timber fires, pushed by gusting winds, destroyed two houses Saturday in rural Spokane County, one east of Deer Park and another in Liberty Lake.
Flames also came close to a second Deer Park home, and a fourth fire burned 8 acres in Cheney.
No one was injured in any of the blazes, but firefighters were exhausted.
“I’m tired. They’re tired. We hope the wind doesn’t blow tomorrow,” said Ed Lewis, chief of Fire District 4.
About 50 firefighters, including some from the Department of Natural Resources, battled two blazes near Deer Park using trucks and a water-dropping airplane.
A home estimated at $200,000 was destroyed at 3311 E. Buckbrush, just east of Deer Park. That fire started about 3:23 p.m., dispatcher Vickie Denman said.
“It was a total loss,” Chief Lewis said. “We had a fire heavily involved on a deck and a shake roof. With the wind conditions and that type of fuel, we simply couldn’t save the home.”
That fire erupted while a nearby timber blaze that started at 2:30 p.m. was being fought. About 1 acre of timber was burned there, and the fire was pushed by the wind until it was beneath the deck of a house at Milan and Pend Oreille roads.
Firefighters were able to knock the flames down about 4 p.m. before they caused any house damage.
During both blazes, a World War II-era amphibious plane skimmed Long Lake, siphoned water through a tube, then showered the flames from the sky. No cause was found for either fire.
Earlier in the day, a fire destroyed a partially built home and 3 acres of timber off of Liberty Creek Road in Liberty Lake.
Dispatchers had about a dozen calls from neighbors reporting the billowing smoke. That blaze started about 2 a.m. and was doused later in the morning, a Fire District 8 dispatcher said. No damage estimate was available, and investigators hadn’t announced the cause of the fire.
The only Saturday fire with a known cause was the one that started just west of Cheney at 11:15 a.m. Children were camping on private property on Mullinix and Dover roads and hadn’t extinguished their fire, said Bill Dennstaedt, deputy chief of Fire District 3.
About a half-hour later, the winds carried it and the blaze consumed 8 acres, Dennstaedt said. His firefighters and some from the Department of Natural Resources had it under control shortly before 1 p.m.
, DataTimes