Hillyard man dies after couch catches fire

A man was found dead in his Hillyard home Tuesday afternoon after an unreported couch fire the night before.

The Spokane Fire Department was called to investigate a hissing sound coming from a duplex on the 6300 block of North Lee Street, after a family member went to check on the resident.

A 27-year-old man, later identified as Zackary Alan Beach, was found dead inside the duplex and the hissing sound was the result of a running faucet, according to the fire department.

This is the first fatal fire of 2019 for Spokane, fire officials said.

Sometime during the night, a fire had started from “discarded smoking materials” igniting the couch in the home, the fire department says.

The man attempted to fight the fire himself using a pot of water and the sink, but he was eventually overcome by the smoke and died along with his cat and dog, fire officials said.

There were no working smoke detectors in the duplex. The adjoning residence in the duplex was occupied, and neighboors told fire fighters they heard some rustling around midnight but were unaware of the fire.

The couch created dense dark smoke, but the fire did not spread to other items in the home before it ran out of air, fire officials said.