Fire breaks out at Winlock warehouse. / Courtesy photo by Desiree Bowers
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
WINLOCK – Twelve hours after fire tore through a warehouse just up the street from the world’s largest egg in Winlock, smoke still rose from the sprawling pile of the building’s remains.
“We still have pockets of active flames,” Lewis County Fire District 15 Assistant Chief Kevin Anderson said.
An excavator was working through the debris so firefighters could continue to extinguish it.
The wood-framed, metal-sided structure stood on the west side of Northwest Kerron Street, just south of Laurel Street.
A similarly large warehouse to its south and two-story house to its north appeared untouched.
Anderson said firefighters arriving after the approximately 2:30 a.m. call found heavy smoke outside and flames visible from the north side of the building, coming out of a rollup door he believed had “failed”.
They were joined by crews from Vader, Toledo, Napavine and rural Chehalis, as well as the ladder truck from the Chehalis Fire Department.
It was an exterior attack, nobody was hurt, he said. The initial knockdown took well over an hour.
“I believe the business was, they were kind of like the middle man, selling materials to some of the liquidator stores,” Anderson said. “Mostly food items.”
It was filled with everything from ketchup and mustard to laundry detergent; pallets and pallets full of grocery products, plus plastic wrapping and packing materials, fire investigator Sam Patrick said.
“So your fire load was huge,” Patrick said.
Anderson said he didn’t know when people were last in the building, as the owners are away on vacation.
Patricia and Michael Parish, who reside in the Winlock area are out of the country, but had been contacted, according to Patrick.
Information from the Lewis County Assessors Office shows the 14,640-square-foot warehouse was built in 1968. It was labeled in fair condition. The assessed value is $220,000.
The building and the property – just shy of one acre – are listed as owned by Alternative Logistics LLC.
Among the rubble was a for-sale sign. Toledo Police Chief John Brockmueller said the property had been on the market off and on for three years or so.
Some of the run off from fire hoses reached a storm drain, and cooking oil seeped into Olequa Creek behind the building, according to personnel on the scene from the state Department of Ecology.
Spill Responder Ben Cornell said they had various ways of cleaning up what they could, including vacuuming oils from the water’s surface.
Brockmueller was there, as the city of Winlock recently contracted with Toledo for police services. Patrick is Sgt. Patrick with the Toledo Police Department. He also sits on the Winlock City Council.
Patrick said he expected it could be a couple of days before he could get in and start searching for the cause.
Firefighters continue putting out hot spots today at Northwest Kerron Street.
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Smoke rises from the remains of pallets of grocery items after warehouse burns in Winlock.
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