MILL FIRE
• Firefighters were called to the Sierra Pacific sawmill in Centralia on Sunday morning after a piece of equipment caught on fire. Someone was making repairs with a torch when molten metal dropped onto a “man lift”, Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Tim Adolphsen said this morning. The fire in the Port of Centralia’s industrial park off Harrison Avenue was extinguished, but caused an estimated $10,000 damage to the roughly $50,000 piece of equipment, Adolphsen said.
THEFT
• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning they investigated a burglary to a garage on Friday in which a Stihl chainsaw, a gas cutting torch and two bottles of gas were stolen. It happened sometime Wednesday evening on the 200 block of East Oakview Street in Centralia, according to the sheriffs office.
• Somebody went into a barn and a residence on the 300 block of North Fork Road outside Chehalis and stole an electric wok, popcorn popper and a welder along with a knife sharpener and stainless steel kitchen utensils, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office reports a deputy called Saturday about the burglary concluded it happened sometime between 3 p.m. June 18 and 9 a.m. the following day.
• Centralia police were called just before 6 o’clock this morning to a car prowl on the 900 block of South Pearl Street. Taken overnight were a stereo, speaker and amplifier, according to the Centralia Police Department. The vehicle had been locked and it’s unknown how someone got inside, according to police.
• Chehalis police were called just before 5 p.m. on Saturday by a woman who said she saw a man take her purse she had left in a shopping car at a grocery store on the 2100 block of North National Avenue. No arrest was made.
• A woman called Centralia police yesterday from the 500 block of South Silver Street about receiving a counterfeit $20 bill during a garage sale. Officers have a description of a male suspect and his vehicle, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• Centralia police were called Saturday to a business on the 100 block of High Street about a counterfeit $20 bill they received. Police were given a license plate information of the vehicle belonging to the person who passed the bill, according to the Centralia Police Department.
DRUGS
• Centralia police arrested a 27-year-old woman on Saturday evening at West First and K streets for possession of methamphetamine. April L. Jones, of Toledo, was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
• Centralia police arrested a 47-year-old man on Saturday for allegedly attempting to obtain prescription medication by fraud. The arrest is connected with a location of the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia. Douglas B. J. Gogel, of Tacoma, was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.
VANDALISM
• Police took a report early Saturday morning of someone “tagging” with spray paint property n the 1200 block of B Street in Centralia.
WRECKS
• Lewis County Fire District 5 was called early Sunday morning to a two-vehicle collision on Interstate 5 in the northbound lanes just north of the U.S. Highway 12 and Avery Road interchange. One car had rolled over and off the roadway and the driver was nowhere to be found, according to Firefighter Kevin Van Egdom. responders searched for more than 30 minutes using a thermal imaging camera, and concluded the driver must have left on his or her own accord, according to Van Egdom.
• An 18-year-old man who was airlifted to a Seattle hospital following a two-vehicle collision in Randle early Saturday with what was described as a lacerated liver and kidney was listed in satisfactory condition this morning. Troopers called about 1:45 a.m. to U.S. Highway 12 blamed driving under the influence on the wreck that also sent two others to the hospital. The investigating trooper reported that William K. Bloomstrom, 25, of Randle, exited the parking lot at the One-Stop Mini Mart in his pickup truck at a high rate of speed and hit the passenger side of an eastbound Chevrolet Cavalier. The passenger in the car, Cody W. Moorhead, 18, of Shelton, was flown by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center, according to the Washington State Patrol. The driver of the Cavalier, Charlotte J. Rathbun, 18, of Winlock, had a sore shoulder and thumb; the passenger in the truck, Benjamin E. Eastman Jr., 32, of Glenoma, got cuts on his nose and right arm, according to the state patrol. They were both taken to Morton General Hospital. Both vehicles were totaled. Bloomstrom was reportedly uninjured. Bloomstrom is under investigation for vehicular assault, according to the patrol.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter