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Woman dies in mid-morning Spokane Valley house fire

The Spokane Valley Fire Department received a call of smoke coming from a garage at about 11:20 a.m. on the 3000 block of South Clinton Road, just north of 32nd Street, said Patrick Erickson, a fire department spokesman. A woman died in the fire. (Courtesy of Erik Smith)
By Quinn Welsch and Nick Gibson The Spokesman-Review

One woman is dead after a house fire in Spokane Valley on Wednesday morning, the Spokane Valley Fire Department said.

The fire department received a call of smoke coming from a garage at about 11:20 a.m. at 3019 S. Clinton Road, just north of 32nd Street, said Patrick Erickson, a fire department spokesman.

The residence is a triplex, and the fire occurred in unit 3. The other units in the triplex did not suffer any notable damage, except for a minor hole in the ceiling of the middle apartment as firefighters worked to contain the blaze next door before it reached the attic.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department received a call of smoke coming from a garage at about 11:20 a.m. on the 3000 block of South Clinton Road, just north of 32nd Street, said Patrick Erickson, a fire department spokesman. A woman died in the fire. (Nick Gibson / The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokane Valley Fire Department received a call of smoke coming from a garage at about 11:20 a.m. on the 3000 block of South Clinton Road, just north of 32nd Street, said Patrick Erickson, a fire department spokesman. A woman died in the fire. (Nick Gibson / The Spokesman-Review) Buy this photo

An older woman was pulled from the residence, Erickson said. First responders attempted CPR, but she died on scene, he said.

Firefighters extinguished the fire in about 12 minutes, said Julie Happy, a fire department spokesperson.

Fire investigators are looking into the cause of the fire, Erickson said.

The Spokane Valley Fire Department received a call of smoke coming from a garage at about 11:20 a.m. on the 3000 block of South Clinton Road, just north of 32nd Street, said Patrick Erickson, a fire department spokesman. A woman died in the fire. (Nick Gibson / The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokane Valley Fire Department received a call of smoke coming from a garage at about 11:20 a.m. on the 3000 block of South Clinton Road, just north of 32nd Street, said Patrick Erickson, a fire department spokesman. A woman died in the fire. (Nick Gibson / The Spokesman-Review) Buy this photo

Spokane Valley Police Department detectives also were on scene to investigate the death, Police Chief Dave Ellis said. The woman’s identity will be released by the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Neighbor Elizabeth Lorrekovich, 17, was at home in a separate unit in the building when her mail carrier alerted her to smoke coming from her neighbor’s garage door. Lorrekovich, her boyfriend and the mail carrier banged on the door but did not hear anything, she said.

“We started securing all our animals, running through our house all frantic,” Lorrekovich said. “I tried to grab the fire extinguisher but couldn’t get it off the wall.”

Smoke started to pour out of one of the windows after her father, Josh Lorrekovich, managed to open it, the neighbors said. The Lorrekoviches have rented the unit next door for the past two years.

Josh Lorrekovich said he has not interacted much with the neighbors who lived in the unit where the fire occurred but believes a man and a woman lived there together.

The fire department closed the nearby roads during its investigation, but they were reopened by about 4 p.m.