SPOKANE, Wash. — A fire broke out at the Bethany Presbyterian Church on South Ray Street at about 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. The northbound lane on Ray Street was closed near East 28th Street to the south.
Fire crews say the fire began in the basement and they were able to stop it from spreading to other areas of the building. About 40 firefighters were on scene. Spokane Valley and Spokane Fire District 8 assisted in knocking down the fire. Most crews left around 5:30 p.m. but others are staying on scene.
Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer confirmed to KREM 2 on Monday that the fire was caused by an overloaded circuit in the basement of the church. It was also determined that the building did not have a working smoke alarm.
Schaeffer was on the scene and told KREM 2 they don't believe anyone inside the building at the time of the incident. He also said there were no injuries reported among either civilians or firefighters.
"In this case, there's even more of a danger because there's more combustibles," Chief Schaeffer said. "The building in this case, the way it was constructed, was tactically, pretty challenging for all of us to get the resources and amounts of resources that we needed down to the basement and to search the large area."
This is a developing story. Check back for more details.