SPOKANE, Wash. — Never once did Heith Carlton think the place he worked in would catch on fire.
“My initial thought was just like, oh, my god, that's the last thing we needed. Here is a fire at the bowling alley,” Carlton said.
Carlton works at North Bowl on Sinto Street. He’s still shocked at what happened.
“If it was on purpose, that is really disappointing in this neighborhood and community," Carlton said.
The Spokane Fire Department says the fire at North Bowl started around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night while the bowling alley was still open. Investigators say it was immediately "suspicious" because of its fast start and because it started in the same area as several other fires that started in the same area in the last several days.
“Based on timelines, they're thinking there's also a possibility of it being intentionally set. So [we are] still looking at more into that," Spokane Fire Public Information Officer Justin de Ruyter said.
That wasn’t the only fire Spokane Fire said was suspicious. A fire was seen near a motel on Sunset Boulevard Wednesday morning. Part of a fence and some bushes went up in flames. The Spokane Fire Department says it's likely the fire was intentionally set.
“Looks like there were multiple starts on that one," De Ruyter said. "So definitely that would be an intentional cause [of] fire.”
De Ruyter says it's still unclear if the North Bowl or Sunset Boulevard Fire are linked. But the six suspicious fires over the past week are definitely an area of concern.
One person was arrested in connection to the fires over the weekend. He remains behind bars on a $100,000 bond.
"We don't know why there's been a lot more fires recently set," De Ruyter said. "Obviously that's stuff that concerns us and patterns we'll look into.”
As for North Bowl, Carlton’s glad the damage isn’t worse.
“We actually opened up last night as soon as the fire trucks ended up leaving and stuff," Carlton said.
Even a silver lining amidst all the chaos.
“We ended up doing a $3 fireball special last night, after the fire,” Carlton said.
According to Spokane Police crime data, arson is up 30 percent compared to the same time last year. In the first 6 months of 2023, the city saw 41 arsons, and so far this year, they've investigated 54 arsons.
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