Tenant charged with arson in North Spokane apartment blaze

An apartment fire in North Spokane forced one person out of their home early Tuesday morning, and that person was arrested on suspicion of starting the fire.

The fire started just before 2 a.m., in a unit at an apartment complex at Rowan Avenue and Martin Street.

When firefighters arrived, heavy black smoke and flames were pouring from the unit. The only person living inside the unit, Ruth Edmonson, 53, was already out of the apartment, so crews focused on containing the fire to the one unit.

“We knocked it down in the one apartment as quickly as we could before it spread up across the top and into the other apartments,” said Tony Serquina with the Spokane Fire Department. “Everything went just as planned and things worked well.”

The unit was severely damaged and a neighboring unit suffered minor smoke and water damage.

Edmonson was charged with first-degree arson. She was arrested at the scene and booked into Spokane County Jail.

According to the Spokane Fire Department, there were “multiple areas of fire ignition” in the apartment.