St. Helens Apartments, 440 N Market Blvd, Chehalis / Image from Lewis County
Updated at 8:40 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The downtown Chehalis stretch of North Market Boulevard that runs by the St. Helens Apartments will be closed this morning as crews bring out their ladder trucks and engage in hands-on pre-planning for how they would fight a fire there.
The tallest building in town is six stories high, with a basement, and is home to scores of people, according to the Chehalis Fire Department. All of its 54 units are occupied, Firefighter-Investigator Derrick Paul said.
The on-scene practice is something they do for complex and potentially dangerous structures, Paul said.
“We haven’t done the St. Helens in probably 10 years,” he said.
The Chehalis Fire Department and Riverside Fire Authority will both bring out their ladder trucks, to see just how high the ladders reach and to scope out the best places to park them for a fire, Paul said.
Members of Lewis County Fire District 6 will be joining them as well, he said.
They expect to begin about 9 a.m. and hope to be done around 11 a.m.
The entire 400 block of North Market Boulevard will be shut down. One block of Cascade Avenue that runs behind the apartments will be closed too, although one lane is expected to remain open, according to Paul.
The masonry wall with wood beam constructed building dates back to 1900, according to Paul. The individual apartments don’t have fire sprinklers, but there are a couple on each level in common areas, he said.
Paul said that over the years, they’ve responded to several fires there, but fortunately the fire station is close and all have ended up being “room and contents” fires, getting extinguished before spreading.
Courtesy photo by Chehalis Fire Department.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Lets hope one of these high rises is never on fire. Because it might fall into its own foot print like the twin towers or building 7. Did on 9-11.