Seven structure fires reported last week

Despite the snow and the holiday weekend, calls to the Spokane Valley Fire Department remained relatively steady last week.

There were a total of 163 calls, down from 182 the week before, Valley Fire spokesman Bill Clifford said.

Seven of those involved structures on fire, he said. The most serious were fires in a chimney and a furnace where a motor had short-circuited.

This is the time of year to consider having furnaces professionally serviced, Clifford said.

“Those things sit idle all summer; they do need to be maintained,” he said.

There were also two reports of brush fires, Clifford said. Both turned out to be campfires.

Firefighters also checked out 10 fire alarms, one hazardous-material call and three service calls, which included a couple of instances of people locking their keys and their children in cars, he said

There were 23 vehicle accidents that resulted in seven ambulance trips, Clifford said. Most of those occurred on Nov. 22 and Nov. 26, and most occurred on Interstate 90.

As weather hovers at or below zero in the coming days, firefighters are also expecting calls of broken water pipes in buildings that haven’t been kept warm enough, he said.