Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A car full of teenagers from Rochester were hurt when its speeding driver skidded off a road and rolled west of Little Rock this morning.

Two including the 17-year-old driver were transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital, two were taken to Providence Centralia Hospital and one sustained only a minor injury, according to the Washington State Patrol.

The driver, whose identity and home town were not released, suffered a head injury, according to the state patrol. Possible charges are pending.

Troopers were called about 5:30 a.m. to the scene at Bordeaux Road near Marksman road, according to the state patrol.

The 1985 Nissan 300 was heading northwest at a high rate and approaching a right hand curve when the driver hit the brakes, left the roadway to the left and hit a ditch and large boulders before rolling over, according to the investigating trooper. The car came to rest on its driver’s side.

Drugs or alcohol are not believed to be involved.

The four passengers and their injuries are identified as:

• Caleb Samuel Capo, 17, leg injuries
• Coy Forrest Belanger, 16, internal injuries
• Miranda R. Leaming, 15, back injuries
• Ryan Eugene Carter, 17, minor unspecified injury

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Longview motorist got a laceration on his head and a DUI after he wrecked on Interstate 5 in Centralia today and launched off the right shoulder, through a ditch, over a side road and drove approximately 500 feet into a field.

It happened about 2:30 p.m. beginning in the southbound lanes near milepost 80, according to the Washington State Patrol.

His 1996 Ford pickup truck was totaled.

According to the state patrol, Tony R. Wyatt, 52, struck the inside concrete barrier and continued along it for about 100 feet before swerving right and hitting a semi truck. His pickup became broadside and accelerated sharply to the west crossing AIrport Way, the patrol reported.

Drugs or alcohol were involved, the investigating trooper noted.

The big rig left the scene before a trooper arrived.

Wyatt was taken by aid to Providence Centralia Hospital for treatment, according to the state patrol.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 75-year-old Toledo man was airlifted to a Portland-area hospital after his Jeep vaulted off U.S. Highway 12 near Morton this afternoon and came to rest at the bottom of a 30 to 40-foot embankment.

Troopers called about 12:20 p.m. to the scene, about a half mile east of town found Cledis W. McNew with what looked like a broken nose and a cut to his ear, according to the Washington  State Patrol. He was transported to Morton General Hospital for treatment and examination of head and internal injuries, according to the state patrol.

They decided to transfer him because of a possible hemorrhage on his brain, Sgt. Darin Foster said.

McNew was traveling eastbound when his 2002 Jeep Wrangler went off to the left and struck several trees before landing, according to the patrol.

The cause is under investigation. The Jeep is described as totaled.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A burial service for individuals who have died in Lewis County over the past 14 years with no relatives to claim them is set for 2 p.m. on Wednesday at Claquato Cemetery west of Chehalis.

Urns will be moving from storage to a cemetery.

The public is welcome to attend.

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office underwent a renewed effort over the past several months to find family members of those whose cremated remains have long sat atop a file cabinet at their office.

Since publishing a list of names in late July, two of them have been reunited with relatives.

Coroner Warren McLeod said yesterday that 68-year-old Hiram Mahlon Coleman who died at his Pe Ell home in January of 2004 was recently returned to family.

The urn containing Harry Edwin Fields Jr., 58, of Chehalis, was released shortly after news stories appeared.

The fourteen urns will share a donated plot in a part of the cemetery known as the county section.

Claquato Cemetery is about two miles west of Chehalis at 142 Stearns Road.
•••

For background including the list, read “The unclaimed dead of Lewis County” from Sunday July 29, 2012, here

Neighbors watched as firefighters battled a house fire on Saturday afternoon in Chehalis. / Courtesy photo by Teresa Steffens

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The top floor of a Chehalis home was destroyed by fire on Saturday, but no one was hurt.

The cause remains under investigation.

Firefighters called just before 3 p.m. found fire coming out windows and the roof ridge vent of the house on the 700 block of Southwest Chehalis Avenue, according to the Chehalis Fire Department.

“About an hour before, he was upstairs putting up dry wall and was taking a break on the front porch reading a book,” Firefighter-investigator Jay Birley said.

“The cause? I got no idea,” Birley said.

It wasn’t safe to go into the area where he thinks it might have began, Birley said, as he could fall through the floor.

Chehalis firefighters were assisted by crews from Centralia and Lewis County Fire District 6. Riverside Fire Authority Chief Jim Walkowski took over as incident commander as Chehalis’s fire chief as not in town, according to Birley.

While the upstairs was destroyed, a lot of the belongings of the the couple who lives there with a baby were saved, according to Birley.

“They got a lot of their stuff out, it was wet,” he said.

Firefighters put water and foam onto a burning Chehalis Avenue house. / Photo by Branden Willson