After hours of digging through the remains of a structure fire for a possible victim, excavator operator Mike Mitchell was happily surprised to see the subject of the search at a freeway exit in Centralia on Saturday. / Courtesy photo by Mike Mitchell
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The homeless man said to be squatting at the shuttered Riverside Motel in Centralia who had firefighters worried as they sifted through the burned rubble on Saturday morning turned up by that afternoon upright and alive.
Fire broke out about 2 a.m. on Saturday at the 600 block of Harrison Avenue and responders soon learned someone had delivered dinner the night before to a transient staying there. He was unaccounted for as the blaze was brought under control and then after daylight as an excavator assisted firefighters in moving debris around to extinguish hot spots.
Heavy equipment operator Mike Mitchell said he went about the task carefully, not knowing what they might find. It was disturbing to see a pair of boots at the scene, which looked as though he had taken them off and left them outside an entryway before going in, Mitchell said.
The man, who was described to Mitchell as a longtime resident who walks with a limp and carries a five-gallon bucket, was someone familiar to the south Thurston County resident. He’s seen him around town for he didn’t know long, Mitchell said.
Riverside Fire Authority wrapped up its work about 12 hours after it began, concluding there were no bodies among the rubble and nothing more could be done that day to explore the possible cause.
Police said they had gotten reports of varying numbers of individuals who may have been living in the motel. Temperatures were in the low 30s that night.
The single-story motel complex has long been out of business, and fenced in since a smaller fire in its northeast section three or four years ago. This weekend, it was two of three mobile structures on the northwest corner which burned.
It sits next to the bridge over the Skookumchuck River; its backside is adjacent to Rotary Riverside Park.
The building was on track to be demolished for development.
Mitchell, who had started his day at a job site in Chehalis, said he was heading back to get his truck around 4 p.m. on Saturday, when he spotted a familiar form holding a cardboard sign at the offramp from Interstate 5 at Harrison Avenue. The subject of his earlier search was standing on the corner in the snow begging, he said.
“Honestly, it was a relief for me to see him there,” Mitchell said. “I thought, ‘Oh good, there he is’.”
Centralia police confirmed today they located the man, whose name they did not release, but he hasn’t been interviewed yet. Fire Marshal and Assistant Chief Rick Mack wants to talk with him, as he attempts to consider possible human causes as to what ignited the fire.
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