Last October firefighters installed smoke alarms in a Spokane Valley home; that investment saved lives when the home caught fire Wednesday night.

A fire at a Spokane Valley mobile home on Wednesday would have turned out much worse if firefighters wouldn’t have responded to the same house last year, for a nonfire call, and noticed that the house lacked smoke alarms, leading firefighters to install them for the residents.

Wednesday’s fire started at about 9:30 p.m. on the 1500 block of North Grady Road, according to a news release from Spokane Valley Fire Department. Residents said they were heating cooking oil, left the room, but heard the smoke detectors and came back to the kitchen to find flames coming from the stove.

Four residents, including one in a wheelchair, were able to escape the fire uninjured and go to a neighbor’s house to report the fire. One resident ran back to the house, grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. When that didn’t work, the resident climbed onto the roof and again tried to fight the fire from above with the extinguisher unsuccessfully.

Spokane Valley firefighters arrived shortly after and extinguished the fire.

That same house was the subject of another response from firefighters in October 2018. At that time, firefighters then came to the house for a nonfire-related call, but noticed the home needed smoke alarms, so firefighters installed them that day.

Firefighters also installed a “bed-shaking smoke detector device,” sensors that are common for deaf or heard-of-hearing people, later that month for a resident.

Damage to the mobile home Wednesday night was restricted to the kitchen, the news release stated.