Archive for September, 2014

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Friday, September 12th, 2014

Updated at 10:07 p.m.

GUNS AND LUNCHBOX STOLEN

• Deputies were called early yesterday morning when a 41-year-old Ethel man discovered his home had been broken into and three pistols were missing. Also taken from the residence on the 1300 block of U.S. Highway 12 sometime during the previous four days was a blue and silver collapsible lunch pail, a camo fanny pack, a 50-inch flat screen television and 3-D glasses, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. There is a possible suspect, according to the sheriff’s office.

BREAK-IN TO TRAILER

• Police were called about 10 a.m. yesterday to the 2100 block of North National Avenue in Chehalis where someone had rifled through a woman’s recreational vehicle while she was away. It appeared some paperwork was missing, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

AUTO THEFT

• Chehalis police discovered a stolen Honda parked along the roadway on the 1100 block of Riverside Road yesterday morning. It had some parts missing and belonged to someone in Olympia, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

FRAUD

• Chehalis police on Wednesday began investigating two different fraud cases, one of which involved a person’s debit card had been used in Bellevue.

VEHICLE PROWL

• A resident of the 400 block of Northwest Quincy Place in Chehalis woke up on Wednesday and discovered the passenger door to their pickup truck open and some items missing from inside such as a drill set, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

DRUGS

• A 26-year-old Pe Ell woman detained for suspected shoplifting about 11 p.m. yesterday at Northwest Louisiana Avenue was arrested for a drug violation. In her purse were found small plastic tubes with suspected methamphetamine, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Tasha A. Oversteake was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to police.

VANDALISM

• Someone spray painted graffiti onto the side of a building at Alder and Woodland streets in Centralia, according to a report made to police about 2:30 p.m. yesterday.

CHILD CRIMES

• Chehalis police took a report on Wednesday of a possible assault of a child and are investigating, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

• Thurston County Sheriff’s Office detectives served a search warrant yesterday morning at a Rochester home where they arrested a 33-year-old man for possession of depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit acts. Their investigation began the day before when they were contacted by the FBI and given some information about images a small children involved in sexual acts, according to the sheriff’s office. Located and seized from the home at the 7100 block of 191st Avenue Southwest were computers and several data storage devices, Lt. Cliff Ziesemer reports. Booked into the Thurston County Jail was Alan D. Burns, according to Ziesemer.

• Lewis County sheriff’s deputies arrested a Toledo man at his home yesterday for alleged child molestation. A now-15-year-old girl told her older sister the relative had rubbed her breast, more than once in recent months, and when she was interviewed by a deputy recalled a similar occurrence when she was 10, according to charging documents. Charges filed today in Lewis County Superior Court state that 53-year-old Michael S. Oullette served a prison sentence for molesting the older girl seven years ago. Oullette denied any inappropriate touching to the deputy. He is charged with third-degree child molestation, first-degree child molestation and second-degree incest. A judge this afternoon ordered him held on $250,000 bail.

POLICE: FIREWORKS IGNITE VEGETATION

• Centralia firefighters were called about 6 p.m. yesterday to the 900 block of Yakima Street where grass and brush caught fire in a vacant lot. It was spreading slowly and covered about 50 feet by 25 feet but was extinguished quickly, according to Riverside Fire Authority. Police suspect a 15-year-old boy had been playing with fireworks and a case for reckless burning has been forwarded to prosecutors for possible charging, according to the Centralia Police Department.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving under the influence; responses for alarm,  misdemeanor theft, collision on city street, items rented and not returned from business in Centralia, suspicious circumstances … and more.

Large forest fire burning beyond Pe Ell

Friday, September 12th, 2014
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Facing west from north of Pe Ell on the 1500 Line last night. / Courtesy photo by Nate Holmes

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Fire personnel are gathered at the VFW Hall in Pe Ell making plans to attack a wildfire on private timberland.

“We’re working on setting up facilities and things for about 200 people coming this way,”  Lewis County Fire District 11 Chief Michael Krafczyk said this morning.

Krafczyk and other local firefighters are assisting the state Department of Natural Resources, which is in charge of the fire.

Krafczyk said he learned at a 7 a.m. briefing the fire doubled in size from last night, and is burning an estimated 50 to 60 acres.

Exactly where it is, he couldn’t say this morning, but the access road is between Pe Ell and the Swiss Park in Francis to the west, he said. And then about an hour’s drive beyond paved roads, he said.

A DNR spokesperson said the fire is burning on a logging site, and two helicopters have been summoned.

“It’s not threatening (Pe Ell) or anything like that,” Krafczyk said. “Just forest land, right now.”

NTSB Report: Small plane bounced on ground, rocked in the air before fiery Chehalis crash

Thursday, September 11th, 2014

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The short flight of the single-engine plane that crashed and burned in Chehalis was rocky from the start, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

For an unexplained reason, the pilot began his take off on the grass, well back from the approach end of the runway and bounced on the uneven terrain as its speed increased, according to the recently released preliminary report  from the NTSB.

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Courtesy photo by Bill Klumbs

“The witness further reported that the airplane subsequently made it onto the runway’s surface and became airborne, but the initial climb was not stabilized; the airplane’s wings were rocking from side to side, and it’s nose was pitching up and down,” the report states.

Within moments, the three-quarter-scale replica of a popular WWII fighter plane, was wrecked and burning in a fenced lot across Interstate 5 from the Chehalis-Centralia Airport; it’s only occupant dead. Firefighters responding the evening of Aug. 26 to the location along Maryland Avenue found the nearly all-wood aircraft virtually consumed.

The pilot Gregory G. Graham, 66, of Centralia, had recently purchased the so-called kit plane, trailered it in and reassembled it, according to authorities.

Peter Knudson, a spokesperson for the NTSB, said he didn’t know if that was its first flight after being put back together.

The NTSB’s report simply describes the facts and circumstances of the incident, it doesn’t contain any analysis or point to a cause, Knudson said today. The average length of an investigation is 12 months.

“There’s a lot of work yet to be done,” Knudson said.

Chehalis-Centralia Airport Manager Allyn Roe described the plane as a P5151 Mustang. The NTSB labels it a Thomas C. Sikes Loehle 5151 Mustang.

The aircraft is classified by the NTSB an experimental plane, meaning it was built by an individual and not a factory.

The day after the incident, Roe told of an out-of-the-area corporate jet pilot, who watched the small plane take off to the north and never really going any higher than about 100 feet.

The investigator with the NTSB cites a professional pilot who observed the take off from the airport’s south perimeter road, from behind the plane. The un-named witness stated the plane made a right turn of about 180 degrees as it continued its wobbling climb.

“The airplane the(n) went into a right bank and steep nose down attitude from an altitude of about 500 feet above ground level prior to impacting terrain to the east of his location,” the report states.

Its landing spot, at the Chehalis Collision Center next to the freeway and near a residential neighborhood, was a little more than two football field lengths from where its take off run began, according to the report.

Nobody on the ground was injured, but at least two parked trucks in the lot were damaged.
.•••

For background, read “Professional pilot watched small plane struggle to climb before deadly Chehalis crash” from Wednesday Aug. 27, 2014, here

News brief: Where there’s smoke, there’s the Goat Fire

Thursday, September 11th, 2014
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Smoke can be seen from the red-outlined area in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. / Courtesy photo by Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Updated at 5:36 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Fire personnel are monitoring a fire burning in a remote and inaccessible section of the Goat Rocks Wilderness estimated at six acres in size.

The cause is undetermined; however the area did receive numerous lightning strikes in mid-August, according to a spokesperson with the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. It was first reported on Sunday.

Smoke may be visible from U.S. Highway 12 and occasionally from Packwood, according to Public Affairs Officer Diana Perez. It’s burning about nine miles east of Packwood.

They’ve named it the Goat Fire.

There are no fire related road or trail closures at this time and no known threat to the public, according to Perez.

Cowlitz Valley Ranger District Gar Abbas says fire personnel are actively scouting the surrounding area for appropriate locations to safely construct containment or contingency lines if needed. They are also making daily weather and fire observations of the area, according to Abbas.

Updates will be shared with the public if any significant changes occur, Perez states in a news release.

Read about Court: Lewis County inmates can get more than postcards

Thursday, September 11th, 2014

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Associated Press reports a federal court says the Lewis County Jail cannot restrict inmate mail to post cards, noting a preliminary injunction issued yesterday.

According to the AP story published at KOMOnews.com, U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura said the policy was a significant burden on the free speech rights of prisoners and their outside correspondents alike, regarding the lawsuit filed by Prison Legal News.

Read about it here

Suspicious: Barn burns to the ground in Mossyrock

Thursday, September 11th, 2014

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Mossyrock firefighters were called last night to a structure fire just west of town, the third fire in the area in three weeks.

They found a large 1920s-era barn fully engulfed in flames, its roof already collapsed, Lewis County Fire District 3 Chief Doug Fosburg said. Investigators are looking into the cause, he said.

The department was toned out at 10:20 p.m. to the hayfield just south of the intersection at Mossyrock Road West and Aldrich Road, he said.

“We had two tenders from District 8 that supported us,” he said. “We were there until about 2:30 this morning.”

Nobody was injured. The metal-roofed barn contained old hay and various pieces of haying equipment. There also was an old John Deere combine inside, he said.

“The hay is still burning, we’re working on getting that out now,” Fosburg said just before noon.

The owner of the property lives elsewhere, he said.

The Department of Natural Resources responded today, because of two recent small fires that occurred in the tree-line on the north side of the property, he said.

It’s suspicious and the county fire investigator is in touch with the sheriff’s office, he said.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Wednesday, September 10th, 2014

MIGHT BE A FULL MOON

• A 29-year-old Centralia man was arrested yesterday afternoon  after jumping out in front of cars on the 1200 block of North Pearl Street in Centralia and allegedly threatening to kill people, according to the Centralia Police Department. Jason R. Ferris was booked into the Lewis County Jail for disorderly conduct after an approximately 4 p.m. contact with officers, according to police.

• A 42-year-old man was subdued with a Taser by police who were called about 7 p.m. yesterday for a belligerent patient who became combative at the 900 block of South Schueber Road in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department. Michael M Slifer, 42 of Centralia, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for disorderly conduct and interfering with a health care facility, according to police.

• Chehalis police responded to the Lewis County Law and Justice Center parking lot about 3:45 p.m. yesterday about a man standing outside a car yelling at the woman inside of it, who then allegedly grabbed a hold of the partially rolled down window causing it to break. An officer contacted Terry R. Strong inside the building where he was conducting business and arrested him for malicious mischief and disorderly conduct. It was his car, police said. Because it was a domestic violence incident, Strong was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

THEFT

• Chehalis police were called yesterday evening about the theft of a package delivered to a home on Southwest 11th Street.

• Centralia police were called to the 500 block of South Tower Avenue about 4:15 p.m. yesterday regarding a DVD player stolen from inside a vehicle.

• Chehalis police were called about 10:45 p.m. yesterday by an individual who said he tracked his stolen iPhone to a location on Southwest Fourth Street. Further details were not readily available, but detective Sgt. Gary WIlson said even though the GPS can get close to the location of a phone, it’s not definitive enough to a particular address to allow for police to search there. The owner of the phone disabled it so it couldn’t be used, WIlson said.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, shoplifting; responses for counterfeit money, suspicious circumstances, children left alone in parked vehicles, a nighttime request for help when a bat got inside a Chehalis home and reportedly was flying laps in a bedroom while the caller sought refuge in the bathroom … and more.