July 16--A fire destroyed a house and an apartment building near downtown Chehalis early Tuesday morning, displacing 10 people. There were no injuries.
Firefighters responded to the blaze at about 4:30 a.m., said Riverside Fire Chief Jim Walkowski. By the time crews arrived, the apartment complex was fully engulfed in flames and the fire had already jumped to the adjacent house about 20 feet away.
Eight people lived at the apartment complex, a two-story building on the corner of Northwest Rhode Island Place and Northwest West Street, located a block from the train tracks in downtown Chehalis. Two others lived in the one-and-a-half story house next door.
All 10 people made it out of the buildings prior to firefighters' arrival, Walkowski said. One man was transported to Providence Centralia hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation.
Most of the fire was extinguished by 7 a.m., but flames from the house were still visible from the street as a firefighter, standing on a ladder truck about 25 feet in the air, doused it with water from a fire hose. Dark smoke continued to rise from both buildings.
Thirty-eight firefighters from several fire districts ranging from Toledo to Olympia responded to the massive blaze, Walkowski said.
The roofs on the house and apartment building had both partially collapsed, and charred debris was scattered on the ground around the buildings. Several fire trucks, emergency crews and fire hoses filled the streets in the surrounding area.
Ken Jacaway, who lived in an apartment on the first floor of the complex with his girlfriend, said they woke up at about 4:30 a.m. and realized the building was on fire.
By the time he and his girlfriend got out, all of his neighbors were already outside.
"I'm sure we lost everything," he said Tuesday morning as he looked at the broken front windows of his apartment. The blackened front door hung from its hinges.
Jacaway said he did not think his cat escaped the fire.
"I don't think she made it out," he said. "But thank God everybody is OK."
Jacaway said he did not think there was a working smoke detector in the apartment.
While Walkowski said it was too early to establish the cause of the fire, Jacaway said he suspected the blaze might have been caused by a meat smoker belonging to a tenant living upstairs. His upstairs neighbor had been using the smoker the previous night on the deck that wrapped around the side of the complex.
Fire crews are expected to be on scene for most of the day.
Personnel from the American Red Cross also arrived early Tuesday morning to provide temporary housing assistance to those displaced by the fire.
Copyright 2013 - The Chronicle, Centralia, Wash.
