Tour Commander, 509.625.7100
Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 3:48 p.m.
This morning at 4:22 AM, the Spokane Fire Department was dispatched to a smoke investigation near 2nd and Monroe. A single company was dispatched initially to handle the investigation. However, the origin of the smoke was discovered to be the commercial building located at 921 West Railroad Alley Avenue. The first company arrived quickly and found heavy smoke and fire showing from the building.
The incident was upgraded eventually to three alarms, summoning firefighters from most of SFD's Stations to assist in controlling the blaze. At one point, 70 firefighters were on-scene engaged in the challenging work of preventing the large fire from spreading to nearby downtown buildings. The SFD successfully limited damage from the fire to the structure of origin with aggressive tactics inside the structure and deployment of large hose streams from ladder companies to areas uninhabited by firefighters. In addition, leaders' early decisions and tactics prevented the potential catastrophe of the fire spreading to the adjacent high-rise building and commercial storage building.
The incident was declared under control at 7:15 AM. SFD resources will remain on the scene this afternoon until the risk to the public has been eliminated. There were no injuries to civilians or firefighters due to the fire. The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation.
