Medical Lake maintenance shop and vehicles replaced after fire

By AL STOVER

Staff Reporter

The Medical Lake’s Maintenance Department went from having its shop burned, and vehicles either destroyed or damaged beyond repair in an April fire to having the fleet replaced, which led it to being voted the No. 5 top news story of 2016.

An overnight fire April 13-14 destroyed one vehicle and damaged several others in the maintenance shop.

In an April interview, Scott Duncan, the city’s maintenance supervisor, arrived at the shop and felt something wasn’t right. When he reached the shop door and opened it, he beheld a facility blackened, but not charred, by fire.

According to City Administrator Doug Ross, sometime between when the shop closed at 4 p.m., April 13, and when Duncan and crew arrived the next day, a fire had started in one of the vehicles. The blaze destroyed one vehicle, a 2001 Chevy Silverado 1500, and blackened parts of six others, including the dump truck, with soot as well as the metal walls and roof and other pieces of maintenance gear in the building.

The Medical Lake Fire Department and one crew from Spokane County Fire District 10 responded to the incident.

There were still a few small pockets of active fire, which were quickly extinguished, but crews noticed an ammonia-type smell in the air and suspected the possibility of hazardous materials released in the area. Fairchild Air Force Base’s haz-mat unit was contacted, and recommended evacuation and shutting down of State Route 902. Once base crews were onsite, they also contacted and received help from a haz-mat unit with the Spokane Fire Department.

Crews began uncovering more damage as they went through the shop. Traffic barricades and regulatory signs, small equipment such as lawn trimmers, spare water meters and installation equipment and other items were damaged.

Crews from ServPro assisted with the cleanup, with insurance investigators examining the scene.

Since the fire, Duncan said the maintenance department is “getting back up to speed.” Repairs to the shop were completed in October. The city received two checks from the insurer totaling $184,000 for coverage of the maintenance shop.

Duncan said three of the department’s vehicles were replaced through insurance and two more were added to the city’s budget.

The department also received a Ford F 350 truck from Avista Utilities to help with water services. Duncan added that the department is working on replacing the tools and parts it collected in the last 30 years.

“In my opinion, we are a little bit better off than we were before,” Duncan said. “The new-used dump trucks are performing perfectly.”

John McCallum contributed to the reporting of this story.

Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.