Tour Commander, 509.625.7100
Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 3:43 p.m.
At 5:52 AM this morning, the Spokane Fire Department (SFD) was dispatched to a hazardous material incident at 221 North Howard (Old City Hall). Early morning workers reported to 911 that an unknown odor was emanating from the basement of the building. When fire companies arrived, they donned protective equipment to allow them to descend into the basement with instrumentation to detect dangerous atmospheres. Firefighters quickly determined extreme levels of carbon monoxide were present and confirmed an evacuation order that was already occurring as a precaution.
Firefighters were able to disable the building's malfunctioning boiler, which was causing the creation of carbon monoxide. The building was ventilated by companies using large electrical fans, eventually allowing workers into the structure after repair to the boiler was underway.
The nature of the incident was determined to be accidental, and the cause was a defective boiler. There were no injuries to firefighters or civilians resulting from this incident.
