Lewis County Sirens.com

The charred commercial structure on the 300 block of state Route 508, just east of Interstate 5 is an uninsured loss. / Courtesy photo by Derrick Paul

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The cause of the fire that destroyed Fire Mountain Farms’ main building and its contents east of Napavine on Thursday night will go down as undetermined.

Fire Investigator Derrick Paul said the area of origin was near the wood stove inside the fabrication shop, but exactly what ignited first is unknown.

The large metal structure contained equipment and other items belonging to the diversified family business.

Fire Mountain raises cattle on other property, but tons of barley to feed them were ruined, along with hundreds of bales of hays which would have been sold, according to Ryan Thode, vice president of operations. Fire Mountain also recycles treatment plant biosolids and lost three dredgers used for clearing lagoons.

Paul said this morning the loss of the building and its contents is close to $1.8 million.

It wasn’t insured, according to Paul.

The fire on the 300 block of state Route 508 was reported just before 8 p.m. on Thursday, and arriving firefighters found the building filled with flames.

The building was large – 150 feet by 40 feet – with a lean-to attached shed on the back and a loft area. The wood stove heated the part of it where they handled their own fabrication needs, according to Paul.

Also inside the structure was his father’s motorcycle room, according to Thode. Two of eight or nine of those were insured, according to Paul. A recreational vehicle that was parked outside and burned also was insured, he said.
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For background, read “Napavine area business loses building, equipment in fire” from Friday January 16, 2015, here

Equipment, stored livestock feed and all the contents of the large building lay in ruins. / Courtesy photo by Derrick Paul

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Riverside Fire Authority announced today that its year end report shows it answered more than 4,200 calls for service in 2014, with about 87 percent of them involving emergency medical incidents.

“This continues a trend where the RFA has set new incident total record in each of the last four years consecutively,” the department’s spokesperson Capt. Scott Weinert writes.

There were 130 fires reported in their coverage area last year, according to Weinert.

The balance of the remaining responses consisted of fire alarms, hazardous conditions and other types of service calls (10 percent), Weinert notes.

Riverside provides services to the area from Centralia and the Hanaford Valley out to Garrard Creek.

To learn more about their stats, visit their web site.

Team Noah, working to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A group of firefighters from rural Chehalis are going to tackle the 69 flights of stairs at the Columbia Tower in Seattle in March, outfitted in their full gear to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

It’s an event that happens all over, but the Seattle stair climb is the largest of its kind, according to Mike Goodwillie, of Lewis County Fire District 6.

Goodwillie said he did it last year, but the newly formed team, mostly from his department, is contributing to the cause in other ways as well.

A cousin of one of the members has leukemia, he said.

“We’re like basically climbing for him” Goodwillie said. “He’s our honoree.”

Four-year-old Noah McDaniel was going to be in the hospital over the holiday, so the firefighters organized a Christmas for him and his family, according to Goodwillie.

Their fundraising effort includes a dinner, raffle and auction in downtown Chehalis on Jan. 31.

The evening will feature the Vancouver Pipes and Drums. Contact Goodwillie for tickets.

Where: Mackinaw’s Restaurant, 545 N. Market Blvd.
When: Jan. 31, 2015, at 7 p.m.
What: Firefighters Auction for a Cure
Why: For the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Who: All are welcome

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 36-year-old Thurston County woman was arrested this morning after law enforcement was notified of a tip from the FBI of a message which stated in part, “I’m about to shoot up a school full of children just to be heard.”

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office was notified at 6:19 a.m. today, and deputies went to her home and based on her demeanor and answers to their questions, believed she posed a threat, according to Lt. Cliff Ziesemer.

They took her into custody and booked her in to the Thurston County Jail for felony harassment, he said.

School had not yet started, so schools weren’t notified at that time, Ziesemer said. All law enforcement in Thurston County was notified of it, however, he said.

The lieutenant said details are not yet known, such as if the woman had a particular school in mind or if she had taken any substantial steps toward such action. She lives in the Steam Boat Island area outside Olympia, he said.

Ziesemer said Karen M. Kibler had access to weapons, but there were none in her home.

“It appears that she’s ‘mental’,” he said. “She’s been diagnosed with mental problems.”

The information came from the FBI’s Guardian Operations Unit, a group he hadn’t heard of until this morning, he said. The alert read as though Kibler had given the information about herself to them, he said.

The unit said it got the tip at 5:26 a.m. EST., according to Ziesemer.

The investigation will continue, he said.

Kibler’s first court appearance will be at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, in Thurston County Superior Court, according to the sheriff’s office.