MILLWOOD, Wash. – Panic and grief overcame a small neighborhood in Millwood early Monday morning, after one home on the block went up in flames, leaving two children under the age of 10 and two dogs dead.
“It’s not something I ever want to live through again,” Cindy Sinatra said.
Just before three a.m., Cindy Sinatra called 911 after her neighbor, Eugene Ford, came frantically pounding on her front door in need of serious help; his home had caught fire with his two kids, 7 and 9, inside.
“It was just terrible,” Sinatra said. “He was at my house, there’s a fire, I’m on the phone to 911 and all of a sudden, you heard this ‘pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,’ then whoosh – it all went up.”
In the middle of the night, chaos unfolded on East Dalton Avenue – as Sinatra was on the phone with the authorities, she said Ford was desperately trying to save his children by breaking through windows; he didn’t have any luck.
“I had to stay calm, he was in a panic, and he just started screaming, ‘my kids, my boys are in there, get my boys out,’ and at that point, it just erupted and there was absolutely nothing he could do,” Sinatra said.
According to the Spokane Valley Fire Department (SVFD) and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), firefighters were able to pull the children and dogs from the home, all unresponsive. Despite life-saving efforts that SVFD said lasted 45 minutes for each child, the kids and dogs died on scene.
As for Ford, he suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to the hospital before he was quickly released. The home he came back to, gone. His children, gone. His dogs, gone.
The family’s backyard paints a picture of an active home; a trampoline, dog houses, toys scattered across the lawn. Now, they lie next to ash and rubble – a stark change from just a few nights ago.
“I saw them about three nights ago, when I had to go tell their dad to turn his music down, and I couldn’t believe how big the kids had gotten,” Sinatra said.Sinatra has lived in Millwood for 14 years, and she said the Ford family has lived next door for about six or seven years.In that time, Sinatra saw the two young kids grow taller and older, moving through life. And on Monday morning, she watched as their bodies were pulled from a home going up in flames, where they died less than an hour later.
“Seeing them carry the babies out, I’ve never seen anything like that before and I never want to again,” she said. A firefighter was injured, as well, but has been released from the hospital. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Major Crimes Unit and fire investigators are taking lead.
