By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A toddler died in an apparent drowning in a backyard pool in Bucoda last night.
The preliminary investigation indicates it was a tragic accident, according to Tenino police.
Police and aid responded shortly after 8 p.m. to the home on the 300 block of Nenant Street where a 21-year-old relative who was babysitting had pulled the boy from the water, according to Tenino Police Chief Sean Gallagher.
A police officer started CPR and a a medivac helicopter was asked to respond to the park in Bucoda, he said.
“When the helicopter arrived, it had been 45 minutes, he just never came back, he never responded,” Gallagher said.
According to the chief, the young woman said she had been away from the children only about two minutes when she heard screaming. She found the toddler’s 6-year-old brother struggling to keep the child afloat in the four-foot-high pool, according to the chief.
The 19-month-old child is Landon “Charlie” Lehman, according to Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock.
A final determination will be made after an autopsy on Thursday, according to Warnock.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Almost 30 pigs perished in a barn fire in Winlock over the weekend.
The cause is still undetermined.
Firefighters from Lewis County Fire District 15 and three neighboring departments were called about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday to the blaze on the 1000 block of King Road.
The 100-foot by 50-foot barn, part of which was built probably in the late 1800s burned to the ground, and a tractor and the materials used for a grain mixing business were destroyed as well, according to Becky Dorothy who operates the Double D Farm with her husband Ron Dorothy.
“We lost two sows and their litters and our boar,” said Dorothy said. “On the bright side, our dog found one of the babies running around in the field behind the barn.”
The two litters of piglets were born just three weeks ago. The family’s St. Bernard sniffed out the surviving piglet last night, Dorothy said. It was thirsty, but surprisingly well given the dangers of coyotes and bobcats, she said, and it had just one little burn.
That part of the property wasn’t insured, but another seven or eight pigs were spared because they were at the Southwest Washington Fair.
The farm raises the animals for youngsters to show in FFA and 4H, she said, and for people to buy as locker pork.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Spokesman-Review in Spokane reported Saturday police there had no reason to think John Allen Booth Jr. stayed in the area after he apparently gassed up a vehicle there.
Today they are reporting police believe the Onalaska man wanted in this weekend’s triple homicide in Lewis County has left the Spokane area.
You can read their coverage from Saturday here and from Sunday here.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A shed was destroyed by fire overnight in Toledo.
Lewis County Fire District 2 was called just before 4 o’clock this morning to the blaze on the 300 block of North Second Street, just two blocks away from the fire department.
The 10-foot by 10-foot wood structure was heavily involved with flames which were threatening some trees, according to Fire Chief Grant Wiltbank.
They arrived in less than seven minutes and pretty much got it knocked down in just a couple of minutes, Wiltbank said.
Firefighters prevented the trees from burning and had to take extra care as the building was just a few feet away from a roughly 40-foot drop off into the Cowlitz River, according to the chief.
The cause isn’t yet known, he said.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A fire that caused about $40,000 damage to a house south of Littlerock last night is being investigated.
About 30 firefighters from Rochester, Littlerock and two other Thurston County fire districts got the blaze under control in about 10 minutes, West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Chief Robert Scott said this morning.
The occupants of the two-story wood frame house on the 14,400 block of Littlerock Road got out safely, Scott said.
When crews arrived to the late evening fire, flames were showing outside the home and extending inside, he said. After it was extinguished, they spent some time checking for hot spots inside, Scott said.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A Morton man was convicted yesterday of stealing old growth cedar from the National Forest and selling it to a local mill.
James R. Van Renselaar, 45, was caught by a U.S. Forest Service officer with a chain saw and bolts of cedar northwest of Morton in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in March 2008, according to authorities.
His attorney Mike Underwood said his client’s partner who took the wood to the shake mill had a permit which turned out not to be valid.
A jury in Lewis County Superior Court deliberated less than two hours before finding Van Renselaar guilty of first-degree trafficking in stolen property and second-degree theft
His sentencing date will be be decided next week.
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