Firefighters from Toledo, Winlock and Vader extinguished a mobile home fire yesterday. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Fire District 2
BATHROOM FIRE EMITS TOXIC SMOKE
• A Toledo-area home sustained significant damage when it caught fire yesterday afternoon, but nobody was home at the time and nobody was hurt, according to Lewis County Fire District 2. Firefighters called at 5:10 p.m. to the 200 block of Drews Prairie Road after a neighbor saw smoke were able to extinguish it fairly quickly, Fire Chief Grant Wiltbank said. However, it left significant smoke damage throughout the mobile home, he said. It appeared a hot water heater caught fire and it extended into a bathroom where among the burning materials were a fiberglass shower and tub surround causing what Wiltbank described as extremely acrid smoke. “I don’t believe there were any working smoke detectors,” he said. “If this had occurred in the night when people were asleep, it very easily could have been a fatal fire. The smoke was that toxic.”
CHILD STRUCK BY VEHICLE
• A 9-year-old boy struck by a vehicle in Centralia yesterday evening escaped with only minor injuries, according to the Centralia Police Department. Officers called just after 7 p.m. to the intersection of Yew and Mellen street learned the child was using a crosswalk and the driver said she did not see him because another vehicle blocked her view, according to police. She was issued a citation.
THEFT
• Police were called just after 4 p.m. yesterday when the victim of a Chehalis bicycle theft spotted their light-weight 10-speed racing bike being ridden through Centralia. An officer contacted the individual with the bike who said he’d bought it from someone, according to Sgt. Kurt Reichert. It was given back to its original owner, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• Five hundred dollars worth of coins in a five gallon jug and two ounces of medical marijuana disappeared from a Winlock area home while its occupants were away earlier this week, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The 58-year-old man and his wife returned home on the 100 block of Sweet Meadows Court Wednesday to find their bathroom window open and the items missing, the sheriff’s office reported. A deputy called yesterday about the break-in noted there is a person of interest, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
• Police arrested two individuals yesterday afternoon for forgery after they allegedly tried to pass a forged check at Wells Fargo Bank on Harrison Avenue in Centralia. April S. Ringo, 35, and Deonna A. Williams, 25, both of Centralia, were booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department. Both are to be released without charges pending further investigation.
• Centralia police called just after 4 p.m. yesterday to a car prowl on South Washington Avenue and Pear Street learned a male on a bicycle had smashed out the car window with a rock and made off with a backpack.
DRUGS
• Alexander Cass, 52, of Burien was arrested for possession of methamphetamine after he was brought to the Lewis County Jail by the state Department of Corrections where a small baggie of the suspected drug was found in his sweatshirt yesterday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
TRESPASSING
• A 23-year-old Mineral resident arrested for trespassing on Wednesday after he admitted sleeping in someone else’s cabin was found yesterday hiding in a creek bed at another Mineral location – a place he’d been told to stay away from, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Noah W. Huckabee, currently a homeless person, was arrested again for trespass and again booked into jail, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.
• Three Chehalis-area residents were arrested for trespassing after an employee of Port Blakely Tree Farms found a small fire smoldering and connected it with a pickup which had been seen early yesterday morning on a logging road in the Curtis area. A deputy contacted the driver, Aaron D. Malone, who said he’d been sleeping, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. One of his passengers, Drake A. Lorber, said they were just chilling, the sheriff’s office reported. A 17-year-old girl with them was turned over to her father and the men were booked into the Lewis County Jail, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. Malone was reportedly driving with a suspended license and Lorber was wanted on a Department of Corrections warrant, according to Brown. The private timberlands are closed due to high fire danger, Brown said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter