POWER POLE ACCIDENT PROMPTS EVACUATION OF FOUR-PLEX
• About a dozen women and children were evacuated from a Centralia four-plex last night when a power pole fell onto the building. It was raining, the roof was metal and “everything was conductive” said Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Casey McCarthy. There was no arcing or smoking and no injuries, but the residents had to go stay with friends while it was repaired, he said. The incident about 9:15 p.m. on Elma Drive off Big Hanaford Road left the area dark for sometime, according to McCarthy. It appeared the pole broke off at its base, he said.
HEAD ON CRASH INJURES CHEHALIS DRIVER
• A 56-year-old Chehalis woman suffered serious injuries when her Ford Explorer was struck head on by a Freightliner at Hewitt and North Fork roads south of Chehalis yesterday afternoon. The woman, whose name was not released, was airlifted to Southwest Washington Medical Center, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. The truck driver, Scott P. Reed, 37, of Onalaska, was cited for failure to yield.
INMATE RUNS OUT OF JAIL
• A swarm of law enforcement officers quickly caught a Lewis County Jail inmate who bolted yesterday morning from a meeting about whether he might remain in the jail or get to return to drug court. Kurtis W. Kemp, 32, of Chehalis, checked in Monday to the jail where he was sent for a few days for a violation in drug court, according to authorities. During a hearing with the drug court corrections officer in an unsecure portion of the building, he pushed his way past the officer and ran outside making it to Cascade Avenue before he was caught, according to the Chehalis Police Department and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He was booked back into the jail for first-degree escape and third-degree assault.
FIREARM LIFTED FROM UNLOCKED VEHICLE
• A Toledo area resident contacted the sheriff’s office yesterday evening to report a gun vanished from his unlocked work truck sometime between Sept. 4 and last Friday. The estimated value of the Ruger firearm missing from the 100 block of Plomondon Road is $300, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
THEFTS
• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning that more than $1,500 of tools including a Stihl weed eater, a chainsaw and a pressure washer were stolen from an attached shop of a Toledo area home. The burglary at the 100 block of Roberts Lane was reported Tuesday afternoon and apparently occurred sometime in the previous week.
• Police were contacted about 12:30 p.m. yesterday about the theft of a Stihl brush cutter from the back of a maintenance truck at the 400 block of North Oak Street in Centralia
• Centralia police took a report yesterday about the theft of a stereo from a vehicle on the 400 block of North Oak Street that occurred on Friday night or Saturday morning.
DRUGS
• Two Centralia men were arrested for possession of methamphetamine after a traffic stop last night in Centralia. Following the stop about 9 p.m. at North Pearl and West Fourth streets, Dennis L. Lindquist, 41 and Dennis R. Warren, 49, were both booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter