Downtown CDA fire probe on hold

COEUR d’ALENE —An investigation into the cause of a fire that burned five downtown businesses earlier this month and damaged another has temporarily stalled, as investigators have been assigned to other fire scenes.

Investigators including Craig Etherton from the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department and municipal investigators from other jurisdictions in Idaho who were hired by the insurance companies of the destroyed businesses, worked through the day Tuesday, but the investigation was temporarily postponed.

“The joint investigation started Tuesday and we ran out of daylight,” Etherton said Wednesday.

Investigators from Boise and Post Falls were called away for inquiries into fires elsewhere, including the GW Hunters fire that on Monday burned the Spokane Street business.

Etherton said he didn‘t know when investigators will reunite to determine the cause of the downtown Coeur d’Alene blaze.

“At this point the investigation is stopped,” he said.

Because investigators dig through debris and bust into walls and rafters looking for evidence, the investigations must all proceed at the same time.

The three-alarm fire that started around 1:30 a.m. Jan. 20 on the corner of Fourth and Lakeside destroyed the Cole Taylor Salon, Schmidty’s Burgers, Heart City Tattoo, 720 Haberdashery, and Farmer’s Insurance. The Emerge gallery on the far north side of the commercial building, was only nominally affected by the flames. A firewall separated the nonprofit gallery from the adjoining businesses, Etherton said.

The fire started near the roof above the Cole Taylor Salon and burned into the roof lines of surrounding businesses, Fire Chief Kenny Gabriel said.

Footage from a University of Idaho camera at a rooftop weather station recorded the fire’s beginnings and firefighting efforts.

Etherton said investigators begin their work in the least burned part of a building, working their way toward the origin of the fire.

“We’re all working our way back to where it started and why it started,” he said.

The 7,500-square-foot brick facility that housed the six businesses was remodeled 15 years ago after being purchased in 2003 by David Rucker, a local developer who owns several buildings downtown.

An investigation into a Jan. 27 Post Falls fire is ongoing, said Geryl Archer, fire marshal for Kootenai County Fire and Rescue. The fire that burned the roof of GW Hunters was a mechanical fire in the attic, but investigators are taking a closer look. An earlier Jan. 23 fire that burned the outside of the former Slab Inn in Post Falls was an electrical fire that started in the soffit, near the main entrance.

“It mostly affected the exterior of the building,” Archer said.