A two-bedroom house on Young Road in Mossyrock burns tonight. / Courtesy photo by Firefighter Taryn Houghtelling
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Firefighters are at a Mossyrock house this evening mopping up after a blaze last night that rekindled twice.
Nobody was home when fire broke out about 11:20 p.m. last night at the residence on the 500 block of Young Road, according to Lewis County Fire District 3 Chief Matt Hadaller.
About 17 personnel, including four from neighboring District 8, battled the fire until about 2:30 a.m., Hadaller said.
It was extremely windy and they had to keep an eye on sparks headed toward a barn and watch an outbuilding to make sure it didn’t catch, according to Hadaller.
“We put a good stop on it, we thought we had everything out,” he said.
But, they were called back about 7:30 this morning when something in the two-bedroom home ignited again. It was fully involved, again, and they fought it for couple hours, he said
It still wasn’t all the way out. Hadaller spoke this evening from his third visit to the scene.
He said they had pulled out all the “hot” items and even walked through with a thermal imaging camera.
“It had cedar shakes with a metal roof over it,” he said. “That’s a firefighter’s nightmare, is a metal roof.”
Firefighters were not trying to extinguish it this evening; the son of the man who owns it told them to let it burn, according to Hadaller.
They had already salvaged what they could, including a “grandma’s cedar chest” which contained what he described as sentimental items.
“It was there through the whole two fires,” he said. “We pulled it out and everything inside was still okay.”
The owner is convalescing elsewhere after a tractor accident about two months ago that left him with a broken hip, the chief said. His family was breaking the news to him tonight.
Hadaller said he didn’t yet have any ideas about what caused the fire.
Home on Young Road in Mossyrock continues to burns tonight. / Courtesy photo by Firefighter Taryn Houghtelling
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter