Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 1:50 p.m

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help in finding a 51-year-old man missing since Friday from south Thurston County.

Donald G. Turner

Deputies this morning are searching the area around the 1700 block of Leitner Road Southwest, northeast of Rochester for Donald G. Turner, according to sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin.

Turner is diabetic and uses medication which was left behind, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

Turner has gray hair and blue eyes and is 5-feet 11-inches tall weighing 190 pounded, according to Elwin.

A report was made yesterday that Turner vanished from the Leitner Road location, according to Elwin.

Turner has friends in both north Lewis and south Thurston counties, according to Elwin.

Update Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 1:50 p.m.: Sheriff’s Lt. Elwin says Turner turned up and he is okay. “He decided to leave his sister’s house and is making plans to live elsewhere … he just failed to tell anyone,” Elwin wrote in a note this morning.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Firefighters were hoppin’ around Randle and Glenoma yesterday as blazes ignited near Lake Scanewa, along U.S. Highway 12 and in brush off Bowen Road near a county shop.

No injuries were reported, but a battle that began just after 11 a.m. continued until long after dinner time.

A large piece of logging equipment was destroyed by fire off Falls Road southwest of Randle in the morning and some four acres of brush burned last night, according to Lewis County Fire District 14 Chief Jeff Jaques. He couldn’t say for sure how large the last fire was, he said.

“It’s hard to gauge in the dark,” Jaques said.

In between, at a little after 1 p.m., crews were called to the 8600 block of U.S. Highway 1 in Glenoma.

There, a shed fire spread to close to two acres, according to Jaques.

A car was also burned and flames nearly got to an unoccupied mobile home on the property, Fire Investigator Jay Birley said.

He doesn’t know what what sparked the Glenoma fire, Birley said late this afternoon.

Jaques said they put out a grass fire on Monday and another on Saturday, as well.

“We’ve had like a week of a steady east wind blowing, which dries the finer grasses,” he said.

It’s not unheard of for brush fires to pop up this time of year, according to the chief.

The largest wildfire in the area he can recall over the years actually happened during the month of February, he said. That was 41 acres.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

An investigator was on the scene this morning after a fire took out a residence in Toledo.

It happened on the 100 block of Roberts Lane behind the softball fields, according to Lewis County Fire District 2.

Fire Capt. Tracy Summers said crews were called just before 5 a.m. when a fifth-wheel trailer was burning and spread to a garage with an apartment above it.

The occupants were unhurt, but the building sustained heavy heat and smoke damage; it and the trailer were a total loss, Summers said.

Another fire investigator went out to the Glenoma area to examine a reported structure fire from yesterday. Further details were not readily available.

Updated at 7:45 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A woman in her 70s was airlifted after a head-on crash in Onalaska this afternoon.

Firefighters from three districts responded to the collision just after 2 p.m. on Middle Fork Road, just east of Dluhosh Road, according to Lewis County Fire District 1 Chief Mark Conner.

Responders had to cut off the roof of her mid-sized pickup to get her out, Conner said.

A helicopter landed at Onalaska High School to pick her up, he said. The woman, Patricia I. Gault, 76, of Onalaska, was flown to Peace Health Southwest Hospital in Vancouver with head injuries and severe leg trauma, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Sheryl L. Unger, 61, also of Onalaska, was driving a 2002 Jeep  eastbound when she went over the centerline at a curve and ran into the pickup, according to the state patrol.

Both vehicles were totaled.

Unger was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital with facial lacerations, the investigating trooper reported.

The speed limit on that stretch of road is 40 mph, according to the fire chief.

Updated 5:15 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Centralia Police Department’s SWAT team visited an apartment on the 700 block of South Tower Avenue last night, arresting two people following a several-week long investigation into drug dealing.

A search warrant was served about 7:15 p.m., according to Officer John Panco.

“It was basically uneventful,” Panco said. “Nobody was hurt, nobody resisted.”

Michael A. Kellogg, 40, of Centralia, was arrested and booked for two counts of delivery of methamphetamine, as well as one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, according to Panco.

Alyssa A. Bowman, 24, also of Centralia, was arrested and booked for possession of methamphetamine, he said.

Panco said he didn’t know the amount of drugs found at at the residence, but said both individuals had drugs “on their person.”

The arrests were the culmination of an investigation by the police department’s anti-crime team, he said.

Update: Kellogg was charged this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court with selling heroin, not methamphetamine. A spokesperson for the Centralia Police Department said he may have misunderstood what drug was at issue.

However, Kellogg was also charged with possession of heroin and possession of methamphetamine. His bail was set at $20,000.

Also, a woman arrested by Centralia police on Monday, Jinney S. Unger, was charged today with three counts of delivery of heroin, plus possession of heroin and meth.

Police said the cases are unrelated.