Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A fire yesterday west of Vader in a metal shop building where marijuana was being cultivated caused an explosion so powerful it raised the roof, blew the helmet off a firefighter and knocked him down.

“He was not injured, he got back up and continued to put the fire out,” Fire Investigator Ted McCarty said.

Members of the the fire department called about 11:30 a.m. to the 100 block of Brim Creek Road found smoke rolling from beneath three bay doors as well as smoke and flames coming through the roof, according to Cowlitz-Lewis Fire District 20.

Fire Capt. Ellis Andrews had just gotten the north door opened so they could get at the flames, and turned to walk away, Chief Rich Underdahl said. Underdahl was at the road about 20 feet away, hooking up the water tender.

The blast rocked the building, closed the rollup door and sent debris blowing past them both, Underdahl said. He said the concussion pushed him backward a step or so.

“There was so much smoke, all I could see was his helmet fly off,” Underdahl said. “It came at me.

“I’m yelling, Ellis, Ellis, are you alright? He gets up and says, yeah.”

There were only three of them on the scene at the time.

They had just finished participating in the May Day parade held each year in the small South Lewis County town. Andrews had piloted the department’s antique Ford fire engine, which he parked and traded for a water tender when the tone came out, according to Underdahl.

Andrews is the captain at the station in Ryderwood.

Firefighters from Toledo and Winlock joined them to battle the blaze.  The medics who were summoned had to go find Andrews to check him out, Underdahl said. “He was back on a hose line,” he said.

The fire was extinguished before it could ruin the south end of the structure which contained tools, a motorcycle and propane tanks but the other end was destroyed, according to the investigator.

Lost were a couple of boat motors, marijuana gardening equipment and plants, McCarty said.

The big blast was just one of about five explosions, and what produced it couldn’t be determined.

The cause of the fire appeared to be overloaded electrical circuits, according to McCarty. The grow lights were on a timer, he said.

“(The owner) was not at a home, he had left earlier in the day and set them to come on, I think he said at 10 o’clock in the morning,” he said.

McCarty said he understood the owner had a marijuana card allowing him to grow a certain number for himself.

Andrews, a 72-year-old longtime firefighter was at the department training this morning and seemed fine, according to Underdahl, not even complaining of any hearing loss.

The chief called Andrews a tough guy and a valuable asset.

“We still don’t know what that was; it was huge and he took the whole brunt of it,” Underdahl said. “He’s a tough guy.”

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2014 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Top story of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.