FIREFIGHTER SERIOUSLY BURNED AT FATAL BUILDING FIRE
September 7, 2016
A man and a woman died in an apartment fire Wednesday afternoon in north Spokane, Washington and a Firefighter was hospitalized with severe burns.
The two-alarm fire started around 4 p.m. at the Rosewood Club Apartments.
Neighbors said the man and woman who died were in their mid- to late 60s. The woman was disabled and bedridden and used oxygen, and the man cared for her full time.
Based on the fire’s intensity and rapid spread, an oxygen explosion is the “likely scenario,” Chief Brian Schaeffer said at the scene.
The sliding glass door of the unit where the couple lived blew out; the explosion “took the shrubs and everything out.”
The injured firefighter, a 29-year-old who joined the SFD about a year ago, was burned on his upper torso when he led his crew in trying to enter the apartment. He’s hospitalized in serious condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center with second- and third-degree burns.
The firefighter broke in the door to the apartment unit and as he did so, the room exploded. The firefighter was working with Engine 18 and was two weeks away from ending his probationary period with the SFD.