SPOKANE VALLEY -- Investigators think a four-year-old playing with a fire caused a Spokane Valley apartment complex fire that sent one person to the hospital Tuesday morning.

The blaze occurred at the Broadway Square Apartments at the intersection of Broadway and Pines. As resident Cherly Bentley fled her apartment, with flames shooting out of her living room, she took the time to run to other apartments to warn her neighbors about the fire.

“I seen banging on a lot of doors and breaking open doors where she thought there were children inside sleeping so yes she did everything she could to notify everyone,” Staci Wahl said.

Firefighters give neighbor Darin Reed credit for giving people time to evacuate as he slowed the blaze’s progress down with a hand-held fire extinguisher.

“I got the fire extinguisher and put some of the fire out but it got too hot and too smoky so I had to get out of there and [Cherly] kept running back in there time after time,” Reed said.

Before Bentley tried to save some of her belongings including her therapy dog named Baby she left her grandson with neighbors for safe keeping.

“The lady who lives here handed me the four-year-old and the four-year-old told me he had started the fire with a lighter he had lit his grandma's sheet on fire,” Staci Wahl said.

It appears the fire started in Cherly Bentley’s bedroom.

Investigators say that kids age two to five do $2 Billion in damage every year playing with matches and lighters.