SPOKANE — Inland Power and Light denied responsibility for the Gray fire earlier this month when responding to a lawsuit brought by Medical Lake- area residents impacted by the blaze.
An investigation by the Department of Natural Resources concluded earlier this year that sparks from an Inland Power security light caused the blaze.
The finding matched what residents had claimed in multiple lawsuits filed weeks after the fire.
Inland Power’s attorney, Scott Cefriese said at the time that the company does not comment on pending litigation, making Inland Power’s response to the lawsuit in court documents on August 5 the company’s first public response.
The company denied the allegations that it is responsible for the blaze and argued that Inland Power’s actions or inactions were not the cause or foreseeable cause of the fire.
Inland Power argued that residents bringing the lawsuit could not collect any damages that they could have mitigated.
“Landowners have a duty to employ defensive measures and protections including, but not limited to, maintaining irrigated and cleared areas around structures, improvements, and fixtures and/ or using recommended and available fire-resistant building materials, and other long recommended measures to protect property and prevent the spread of fire to neighboring properties,” the response reads.
The company went on to argue that the fire was caused by an unavoidable accident or act of God, which Inland Power couldn’t have predicted.
Inland Power and Light “is not an insurer for everything that can possibly go wrong in the distribution of electricity.”
A trial date for the lawsuit is set for September 2025. Lawsuits against Avista related to the 2020 Babb Road fire that destroyed the towns of Malden and Pine City remain on going.
