Whenever there’s a fire, we expect firefighters as soon as possible. One local fire district says limited resources make that a lot more challenging.
However, more money could be on the way for those first responders.
It may have happened nearly 30 years ago, but Bonnie Cobb remembers it like it was yesterday.
“We were just spreading water with a little garden hose. We didn’t even know the danger we were in at that point,” said Cobb.
By the end of Firestorm 1991, one person had died, and more than 100 homes had burned. Bonnie and her daughter Bethany were some of the lucky ones.
“It was pretty devastating. A lot of the houses got burnt up and a lot of people lost a lot of property,” said Bethany McCann, Bonnie’s daughter.
“With that happening, we got educated pretty fast,” said Cobb.
It’s that education that inspired Bonnie and her daughter to volunteer with Spokane County Fire District 5.