SPOKANE—The Spokane Fire Department (SFD), in collaboration with the Spokane Police Department (SPD), is investigating four suspicious fires that were ignited overnight in Spokane’s South Hill neighborhood.
The first fire was reported at 12:15 a.m. in the 2700 block of East 46th Street, adjacent to the Southeast Sports Complex. This fire involved debris in a shopping cart.
Spokane County Fire District (SCFD) 8 responded quickly and extinguished the fire before it could spread to nearby vegetation.
At 1:10 a.m., three more vegetation fires were reported in the 3100 block of East 42nd Avenue.
Investigators from SFD and SPD suspect the four fires might be connected to the two arson incidents by Ruggiero’s Ace Hardware and the fire at Squeaky’s Car Wash.
Both businesses sit on South Regal Street and are in the same neighborhood as the fires ignited Thursday morning.
“The two fires last night are kind of the same area where we’ve had three previous fires. We’ve had some other kind of grass fires in that area. They don’t quite meet some of the same patterns as these ones do… Just based on time and location, we’re certainly thinking it’s probably related to the three previous fires,” Justin de Ruyter, the Public Information Officer for SFD, said.
No one has been identified as a suspect yet.
“There are a lot of fuel sources that were close to that. And my understanding is an accelerant was actually used in the attempt…If it got out of control, it could be really, really nasty,” April Kelcy, a resident at a senior apartment complex in the neighborhood of the fires, said.
With a suspected arsonist in the neighborhood, she told NonStop Local she is worried about the safety of herself and her elderly or disabled neighbors in the complex.
“In this complex, we have people who are not able to self-evacuate from the second floor,” Kelcy said.
SPD will be increasing their patrols in the areas that the suspected arsonist appears to be targeting.
SPD and SFD told NonStop Local that the person, or people, responsible for the fires will be facing serious felonies.
Anyone with information on the suspicious fires is encouraged to contact SFD’s arson tip line at 509-625-7199.
