Fire displaces Cheney family

CHENEY — A Cheney family were displaced from their home after a New Year’s Eve fire made their rental home uninhabitable.

Medical Lake Middle School special education teacher Ben Hill and his three children weren’t home when a passerby noticed the fire and dialed 911 between 6:30 – 7 p.m., according to Cheney Fire Department’s Lt. Tim Steiner, the incident commander on the blaze on the 400 block of North 6th Street.

Firefighters from Cheney and Spokane County Fire District 3 were able to quickly contain the fire to a single room but had to remove part of the ceiling to ensure the fire hadn’t s...