SPOKANE, Wash. – One person is confirmed dead after a house fire Tuesday night. The fire broke out on the 3700 block of West Elmhurst Avenue. Spokane Fire received reports the fire started in the attached garage and moved through the entirety of the home.
One neighborhood resident has lived in the area for over a decade spoke to NonStop Local on the condition that they would stay anonymous. She said she heard several loud bangs and was initially unfazed until she looked out her back window, “I went to look out my back window, and it was orange.”
The Spokane Medical Examiner’s Office will officially reveal the identity of the person who died. However, NonStop Local spoke to a woman who said she was his sister and identified him as Joshua Barber, 31. Raven Barber described her brother as “a good man, with a big heart who struggled with his mental health.”
Although the neighbor we spoke to did not know Barber personally, she had a message for his family: “I’m so sorry. I’ve been praying all day. I just really hope that you know god lives shoot in his arms and protects you and takes care of you, because this has got to be really the worst thing that can happen.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
