Lewis County Sirens.com

Arriving firefighters saw flames coming out second-story window.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – What ignited a house fire in Chehalis displacing eight residents is still unknown but a closer look at a stove on the second floor in an area converted into a kitchen is in order, according to authorities.

“I’m still working on the investigation, so I can’t really say for sure,” Fire Investigator Jay Birley said.

The fire broke out at mid-morning on Thursday on Southwest 14th Street just east of Wilson Avenue.

The two-story structure originally was a church. It’s owner operated it as a kind of halfway house, she called House of the Rising Son until the city raised zoning issues with her a few years ago.

Birley said interviews with the occupants indicate a woman had been upstairs to retrieve DVDs and glasses, went downstairs and when she went back upstairs she discovered the fire. She thought he saw something burning on the stove, Birley said.

She alerted another resident who attempted to put it out with a fire extinguisher but was unsuccessful, he said.

One man and one woman were taken to the hospital for smoke and breathing issues, according to responders.

Birley counted six bedrooms in the house and only found one smoke detector, which had been taken down and wasn’t working, he said.

Two of the occupants were small children.

The Red Cross was summoned to assist the residents. The house is still standing, but the city red tagged the building as uninhabitable.

Chehalis Fire Department Chief Ken Cardinale said the stove was situated in an area determined to be the fire’s origin. He said renovations for which no city permit had been obtained were discovered.

BIrley said if the home is insured, the insurance company will want to have the stove examined.
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For background, read “Eight people displaced by Chehalis house fire” from Thursday April 6, 2017, here

Eduardo F. Morales Martinez, in green, signs sentencing documents in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – While there were three ounces of methamphetamine found under the seat of his car following a traffic stop at the McDonald’s parking lot in Chehalis, prosecutors found no evidence to corroborate he was intending to sell or distribute the drug.

So, a plea deal was made with 37-year-old Eduardo F. Morales Martinez.

Morales Martinez and his 38-year-old passenger were arrested last month and this week he was back before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court to be convicted of a lesser charge.

He was initially charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, but pleaded guilty to simple possession on Wednesday morning. He also pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal impersonation.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello told the judge the change was made because while it was a large amount of meth, the statute required him to show the defendant planned to deliver the drugs, and that information “wasn’t present.”

Morales Martinez also admitted to using a false name with law enforcement during the March 8 incident, showing them three Mexican identification cards.

Masiello told the judge he recommended Morales Martinez should be given 60 days in jail, something he called pretty standard for the type of situation.

Morales Martinez, who told the court he worked in construction and prior to that did oyster shucking, spoke through a Spanish-English interpreter. Court papers list a Shelton address for him.

Masiello had written in charging documents that Morales Martinez had prior convictions for delivery of a controlled substance and driving under the influence as well as multiple deportations and illegal entries.

Defense attorney David Arcuri told the judge he had gone over with his client in detail the potential immigration consequences of his plea, informing him it was highly likely federal authorities would process him for deportation when he finished serving his time.

Judge Andrew Toynbee accepted the guilty pleas and imposed the two-month sentence, giving credit for 29 days already served. He also ordered Morales Martinez to pay $4,200 in fines and fees. He called it a fair outcome, based on what he knew of the case.

The companion case for the passenger, Olympia-area resident Gloria N. Iniguez Gonzalez, 38, is still pending, according to Masiello. Her bail had been set at $10,000 and she is no longer in jail.

She had a 1-year-old son with her during the traffic stop on Median Street that Morales Martinez said was also his son.

Neither Arcuri nor Masiello knew where Morales Martinez might be deported to.

“South of the border, is all I know,” Masiello said. “I know they (ICE) know of this case, but exactly how they will be proceeding, I don’t know.”
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For background, read “Chehalis traffic stops yield large amounts of meth” from Friday March 10, 2017, here

A fire investigator begins looking into the cause of the fire at a Chehalis residence.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Six adults and two small children are without a home after a fire broke out this morning on Southwest 14th Street just east of Wilson Avenue in Chehalis.

Everyone was out of the two-story residence by the time Lewis County Fire District 6 Chief Tim Kinder arrived on the scene, but a man and a woman were taken to the hospital for breathing and/or smoke issues.

“When we pulled up, there was fire coming out the second story window,” Chehalis Fire Department Capt. Ted McCarty said.

Crews found flames on the upper floor and in the attic area, McCarty said.

“A lot of smoke damage throughout,” he said.

Genessa Glidden said she had just recently signed up with the owner Judy Chafin to be a caregiver there. Chafin was at the hospital and Glidden worked with authorities today to see about getting five cats out of the house.

The city red tagged the building as uninhabitable.

Members of the Red Cross and a Lewis County chaplain were at the scene assisting.

“We’re here to take care of them,” Malcolm Hanrahan of the Red Cross said. “They’ll have a place to stay tonight and something to eat.”

Kinder said 15 firefighters from four departments extinguished the fire. It was reported at 9:38 a.m. The cause is under investigation.

Chafin and the city had issues a few years back relating to zoning when she opened up her home to newly released prisoners and others who needed help getting back on their feet.

At the time, she called the home House of the Rising Son and she operated numerous halfway houses in the county.

In 2014, she was convicted for a prescription drug possession offense and given 30 days of house arrest for what a jury learned were a former housemate’s morphine pills left out in a common area which she scooped into her purse because she had her small grandchild living with her.

An anonymous complaint to the state Department of Labor and Industries around the same time took her to Lewis County Superior Court, with criminal prosecutors contending her performance of landlord-like services meant she wrongly collected disability benefits for a 2006 on-the-job injury. She was acquitted.

Chehalis Police Department Chief Glenn Schaffer today said an officer was called to the house recently and noticed a significant number of people residing there again.

Paperwork put together by the police department, the city’s community development section and the city attorney with notices of zoning and code violations are either ready to send or have already been mailed to Chafin, according to Schaffer.

“This zone should be for a single-family house,” the chief said.