Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The death of a 62-year-old man found in a barn in the Winlock area yesterday is under investigation.

It appears to have been an accident, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said the sheriff’s office found him about 4 p.m.

The barn with cattle in it at the 300 block of Meier Road belongs to the deceased, according to Brown.

Brown said the death does not appear suspicious, nor do they suspect any foul play. The sheriff’s office is waiting for an autopsy to confirm what they think occurred, she said.

Update: Kenneth Crocker, a former mayor of Winlock, apparently died from a heart related situation.

Brown said it initially appeared he may have struck his head while loading up some cattle. Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said the cause of death is cardiac dysrhythmia.

Crocker served the city of Winlock for more than a decade, beginning in 1982 with two terms as a council member and then as the elected mayor until the end of 1993, according to City Clerk Tedi Curry.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 22-year-old Onalaska resident was killed overnight in a single vehicle wreck on state Route 508 near Gish Road.

Troopers called about 1:50 a.m. report Kyle A. Wentzel was traveling eastbound when his pickup truck crossed the centerline and struck the opposite ditch. Wentzel died at the scene.

It happened at a place locals call the “S” curves, where the highway zig zags around the Newaukum River, Lewis County Fire District 1 Chief Mark Conner said. The speed limit there is 55 mph.

His 1999 Dodge pickup was totaled, according to the Washington State Patrol

Conner said he’s seen accidents with much more damage to the vehicle than this one, but Wentzel wasn’t buckled up.

“I think the fact that even though the airbag went off, (it was from) not wearing a seatbelt; the impact,” he said.

Updated at 6:46 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Chevrolet Suburban carrying four Chehalis residents spun out of control on Interstate 5 and flipped onto its top just north of the Toledo-Winlock interchange this afternoon.

The driver, 41-year-old Michelle A. Hall Fonenette, and her teenage passengers were all taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with what looked to be minor injuries, according to responders.

Lewis County Fire District 15 called just before 1 p.m. to the northbound lanes near milepost 64 found the occupants had all self extricated, according to Firefighter Patrick Jacobson. The vehicle was totaled.

According to the Washington State Patrol, the driver moved to the left to avoid striking another vehicle and when she drove onto the rumble strip and gravel median, she lost control and her Suburban swerved to the right across both lanes, spinning around and then landing on its top on the shoulder.

The youngsters with her were Mikah D. Hall Fonenette, 16; Dimitri J. Hall Fonenette, 16; and Israel Cowger, 15, according to the state patrol.

Jacobson said the wreck followed another one in the southbound lanes in the same area by less than an hour. Four occupants of a passenger car were all uninjured when it collided with a semi truck, Jacobson said.

A multiple vehicle accident farther north at the southbound exit to Harrison Avenue sent two people to the hospital later today.

Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Casey McCarthy said it appeared it may have been a moderate to low speed rear ending type incident. The patients had possible minor injuries, he said.

Troopers called about 4 p.m. found a Ford Explorer carrying a Rochester couple had exited the freeway and struck the rear of a pickup truck in a line of three vehicles stopped for the traffic light. All four vehicles were damaged, according to the state patrol.

Daniel R. Miller, 72, of Rochester, was cited for traveling too fast, according to the investigating trooper. Taken to Providence Centralia Hospital were his passenger, Cheralyne Miller, 72, and the driver of the Toyota pickup, Kenneth C. Floyd, 62, from Rainier.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Twelve minutes from dispatch time to locating two missing children last night in the Salkum area.

Fire Chief Duran McDaniel today is singing the praises for one of his volunteers who spotted the girls, ages 6 and 11, in the darkness alongside Gore Road near Stowell Road.

About 10 members of the volunteer department answered the call just after 11 p.m. to assist the sheriff’s office after the youngsters vanished from a babysitters home on the 400 block of Gore Road, McDaniel said. “That’s everybody’s worst nightmare, kids missing,” he said.

Fire Lt. Tim Robinson had picked up a department command vehicle from the main station on U.S. Highway 12 and had just started up Gore Road, he said.

He happened to glance in his rear view mirror and saw from the glow of his tail lights two figures coming out from the ditch, McDaniel said. The girls must have stepped off the road when they saw his headlights, he said.

Robinson picked the children up and delivered them to sheriff’s deputies.

“His sharp eyes saved hours of work,” McDaniel said of the longtime volunteer firefighter.

McDaniel said his understanding was the youngsters decided on their own to walk home from the sitter’s place. They had already traveled two to three miles, he said, in the right direction but in the dark.

Crews work to extinguish a brush fire south of state Route 505. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Fire District 2.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Members of three fire departments responded to a rapidly moving grass and brush fire near Toledo late this afternoon that covered as much as seven acres.

One home was in the path of the flames, but crews were able to quickly contain the fire, according to Lewis County Fire District 2.

It was on property about a quarter mile south of state Route 505, approximately a mile east of Interstate 5, according to Chief Grant Wiltbank.

It appears it may have ignited from an ember blown from a previous land clearing burn pile, according to Wiltbank.

Wiltbank said some 40 firefighters with 14 apparatus answered the 5:15 p.m. call. Members of the state Department of Natural Resources were on the scene as well. Nobody was injured.