Careless Acts Spark Both Fires

Human error on a hot, windy afternoon may have caused the two fires that burned thousands of acres Thursday in the Spokane area.

People illegally burning weeds in a pit 2 feet deep near Tum Tum apparently sparked a 1,2000-acre blaze, witnesses say.

And in west Spokane, the Newkirk fire may have started when a man used a blowtorch to cut a windshield off a boat parked on his property.

Though authorities have declined to comment on the cause of either fire, the man with the blowtorch said he was responsible for one of them.

“It’s my fault, I know,” he said, refusing to give his name. The owner of the house identified the man as a friend of one of her sons.

“It’s so dry out there,” the man said. “If it wasn’t for the wind, there wouldn’t be a problem.”

A red, glowing bolt popped off the windshield, he said. It fell into the tall grass at 4424 N. Old Trails Road.

“It happened so fast,” he said, as he watched the flames burn down his barn and two abandoned motor homes. He said he called the fire department immediately. Firefighters arrived in seven minutes.

The man spent two hours standing silently about 20 feet away from the flames. While others shoveled a fire line to prevent the fire from destroying nearby property, he leaned against a tree and listened to the crackling trees, the bursting tires and the bang of ammunition, exploding like popcorn.

About a dozen firefighters shoveled a fire line on the other side of the man’s property. A neighbor, Bill Brown, was still shaking from anxiety.

“I tried to get everything as wet as possible,” said Brown, who came home shortly after 1:30 p.m., when he saw the smoke from miles away.

“All I could think about was water.”

Brown’s first instinct was to save his dogs - two adult Rottweilers and five 7-week-old puppies that were locked in a fenced area 50 feet from the flames. He also watered his roof and surrounded his motor home with spraying sprinklers.

“We saw him running around like a madman trying to rescue his dogs,” said Crystal Stapert, who was driving by with her husband, Jason, when the fire started. The couple immediately tried to help by shoveling and spraying the fire with water from a garden hose.

At the other fire near Tum Tum, Steve Florian and his son Chad were driving south on Highway 291 when they saw smoke billowing from the woods on the north side of the road.

After grabbing shovels from the back of their truck, they came through the tree line and found a fire burning on about half an acre near a mobile home.

“It looked like they were trying to burn weeds in a pit,” Florian said. “Then the wind started blowing. It got out of control in five minutes.”

He said he told the people they should know better than to start a fire during a no-burn season, “but they were trying to cover it up and trying to get me off the property.”

As Florian drove away, he turned and looked out the back window. “The road was gone,” he said. “It was up in flames.”

Still, that didn’t prevent them from driving their 1979 Ford pickup through the woods to warn others.

The fire’s heat melted the plastic sunscreen off the windshield. Florian also broke off both of the truck’s side mirrors while driving between the trees.

They didn’t linger.

“I was scared to death the truck might explode,” he said. “I dropped it into first gear and punched it.”

, DataTimesILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CONTRIBUTORS Staff writers Hannelore Sudermann, Kim Barker, Robin Rivers, Mike Prager, Tracy Ellig and Jonathan Martin contributed to this report.