By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Centralia area fire department is urging the public to use extra caution when conducting outdoor burning, noting an unusually warm and dry spring after twice yesterday evening responding to brush fires.
At 4:50 p.m. crews were called to the 600 block of Centralia-Alpha Road where they found grass and light brush on fire covering an area of approximately 50-feet by 20-feet.
“The fire was quickly brought under control without any complications,” Fire Capt. Scott Weinert stated in a news release.
It appeared to have originated where brush had been piled up next to an area where the ground was being developed for some type of construction, according to Riverside Fire Authority.
“The RFA wishes to remind everyone that outdoor burning must be attended by a responsible person and a burning permit must be obtained from Lewis County,” Weinert wrote. “All conditions of the permit must be adhered to at all times.”
Twenty minutes after that call, the fire department was dispatched to TransAlta on the 900 block of Big Hanaford Road where employees discovered a nearly half-acre fire that consumed brush and ignited a pile of power poles as well as an over-sized tire and a debris pile, according to Weinert.
The workers had used a bulldozer to create a trail around the perimeter to prevent the fire from spreading, Weinert said.
It was just four days ago when three area fire departments spent all night attacking a wildfire on Crego Hill in Adna.
Last summer saw some of the largest, and fastest moving wild fires around the county, and the region, in recent history due to an exceptionally hot and dry summer.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter