COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Four people made it out of an RV fire near Coeur d’Alene Tuesday morning, but one woman who was living there did not survive.
Firefighters responded to a fire around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday on North 15th Street near Nettleton Gulch Road, just outside of the Coeur d’Alene city limits.
They found a pole building on fire, then learned a family was living in an RV inside the building.
Four people, including some children, were already outside with moderate burns, then firefighters found a woman inside who was not able to escape the flames.
“Once they got on scene, they encountered a fully engulfed whole building that was on fire, and there were also several family members that were outside that were showing signs of light to moderate burns,” said KCSO’s Mark Ellis.
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office is not yet releasing the names of the victims.
A neighbor who witnessed the fire said she heard some loud noises as the building went up in flames.
“I heard some explosions, quite a few of them, including a couple of real loud ones and some that were just more of a ‘pop, pop, pop.’ I wasn’t sure what it was. I thought maybe gunfire,” said the neighbor.
KCSO said while investigating the cause of the fire, deputies found a grenade on the property, prompting them to call in the Spokane County Bomb Squad.
“They could not tell if it was a live grenade or an inert grenade. It wasn’t drilled out in the bottom, so they did retrieve the grenade and detonate it in the backyard,” Mark Ellis said.
KCSO said whether or not the grenade was real, it’s connection to the cause of the fire and how the fire started is still under investigation.
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