SPOKANE, Wash. – Multiple people are displaced, several animals are dead and one person is behind bars after a fire engulfed a home in the Chief Garry Park neighborhood.
Wednesday, around 10 p.m. Spokane Police responded to a report of a structure fire near East Desmet. When officers arrived the home was a total loss, surrounded by smoke and covered in flames.
Police say multiple people were inside the home at the start of the fire, but were able to make it out safely. Several animals were also inside the home but none of them made it out.
Police did interview people at the home. They told police the fire was no accident. And that 42 year-old Rodney Barnhill had purposely set the home on fire after an argument with a woman inside.
Barnhill left the home before police arrived, but was found hiding just a few blocks away by police.
Police say Barnhill was uncooperative with them, at one point holding a knife to his neck threatening to hurt himself. Barnhill also provoked cops, telling them to shoot him multiple times.
Police were able to talk down Barnhill – after about a half an hour and he surrendered himself to police.
Barnhill was arrested for 1st degree arson and a court order violation. He is currently in the Spokane County Jail.
