25-foot flames burn north Spokane Home Depot’s home and garden aisle

Firefighters battled 25-foot flames Thursday evening inside the north Spokane Property Depot, which endured destruction estimated to price tens of millions of pounds.

Customers and personnel safely evacuated the house enhancement retail outlet, which remained shut Friday as crews labored to clear up the aftermath.

Firefighters ended up called to the keep at 9116 N. Newport Hwy. at about 9:25 p.m., and the first fire company arrived in three minutes, Spokane Fireplace Chief Brian Schaeffer mentioned.

He reported arriving crews noticed smoke as staff frantically exited. Flames ended up obvious in aisle 2, which is in the residence and backyard garden place.

The substantial amounts of highly combustible and flammable liquids and elements, like gasoline and battery-powered leaf blowers and garden mowers, stacked high towards the ceiling fueled the tall flames in the aisle, Schaeffer reported.

The building is geared up with fire suppression and alarm devices, which Schaeffer credited in saving lives and considerable house injury.

“Without the sprinkler system, the creating would have been missing,” he reported.

Schaeffer explained folks inside the retail outlet started off to exit when the smoke alarms activated. The intensive warmth from the flames activated several sprinkler heads, which prevented the fireplace from spreading earlier the contents of aisle 2 and authorized firefighters to securely research the retail outlet and use massive hose lines to confine the flames to the aisle.

Schaeffer approximated the aisle to be 50 toes long, with products and solutions stacked on pallets 25 feet significant.

It took about an hour to declare the hearth beneath control, predominantly since of how dense the solutions had been, he said. Schaeffer mentioned it was extremely challenging to rotate much more than 60 firefighters to struggle the blaze, contacting it “pretty taxing” on their bodies.

A person firefighter was injured by a slipping box that struck him from driving, Schaeffer stated. The firefighter was dealt with at the scene.

A variety of law enforcement agencies and the Spokane Hearth Division are investigating the lead to of the fireplace, Schaeffer stated.

Schaeffer stated firefighters worked Friday to restore the sprinkler technique and thoroughly clean up regions ruined by fire. Yellow warning tape cordoned off entrances to the retail store.

Schaeffer stated he is optimistic the retailer will reopen before long.

He believed house harm, like cleanup expenses, to be millions of dollars.

Spokane County Hearth District 9 also responded to the fire Thursday evening.