Fire destroys apartment building in Cheney

A two-alarm fire tore through an apartment building that houses elderly, disabled and low-income people in Cheney on Saturday afternoon, sending at least two residents to the hospital and injuring a cat.

The fire was reported about 2 p.m. in a four-unit building at the 100 Washington Square apartments. Cheney police Sgt. Chad Eastep said one of the ground-floor units was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, although it wasn’t clear where the fire started.

Eastep said all residents were accounted for and two were transported to a local hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. He didn’t know their conditions or any identifying details.

Crews from the Cheney Fire Department and Spokane County’s Fire District 3 were still scouring the building and dousing hot spots at about 3:30 p.m.

The cause of the fire also remained unclear, but several neighbors said they believed a resident had been smoking cigarettes near her oxygen tank. The neighbors also reported hearing multiple popping sounds which they believed were exploding oxygen tanks.

Grant Michaelis, who lives in a neighboring apartment complex, said he was taking a routine walk around the neighborhood when he spotted “billowing black smoke” rising from the building and a woman shouting for help on a second-floor balcony.

Michaelis and two other neighbors said the woman’s cat was badly burned and given to the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service.

The 100 Washington Square complex is managed by Cheney Real Estate Management Inc. The units are subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.