Lewis County Sirens.com

SMOKE BUT NO FIRE

• The new pizza parlor on Harrison Avenue near Interstate 5 in Centralia was evacuated briefly last night when someone smelled and saw light smoke inside the building, according to Riverside Fire Authority. Firefighters called about 8:30 p.m. determined a motor – for the blower in the heating system – on the roof has burned up, fire Capt. Tim Adolphsen said. Firefighters shut off the power and turned the building back over to the business, Adolphsen said.

THEFT

• Centralia police were called about 4 p.m. yesterday to the 700 block of South Tower Avenue about the theft of mail.

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office recovered a stolen vehicle yesterday on the 900 block of Koontz Road. A deputy was told it was purchased for $7,000 from a business in Fife. It was stolen out of Pierce County and valued at $25,000, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

• Crime Stoppers of Lewis County reports that an antique claw-foot bathtub and several thousand dollars of wire was stolen in a burglary on the 300 block of Garrard Creek Road in Rochester sometime between last Thursday evening and the following morning.

SLEDGE HAMMER VERSUS TRUCK

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning they arrested a 22-year-old Randle resident for an April 18 incident in which he allegedly took a sledge hammer to a truck being driven by a juvenile male on Silverbrook Road in Randle. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said Blaine M. Murphy, 22, was arrested for malicious mischief. Information about when he was arrested was not reported or readily available.

CAR VERSUS SCHOOL BUS IN NAPAVINE

• Lewis County Fire District 5 was called about 8:25 this morning when a passenger car and a fully-loaded school bus collided at West Washington Street and Alder Avenue Northwest in Napavine. There were no injuries, fire Lt. Laura Hanson said. Hanson reported the bus was struck from behind by the car resulting in minor damage to both vehicles. The children were picked up by another bus and taken to school.

LOST HIKER SLEEPS IN SNOW NEAR ASHFORD

• The subject of yesterday’s search and rescue mission southeast of Ashford spent two nights sleeping in the snow after he lost sight of his trail because of the snow, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning. The 49-year-old Auburn man had set out from Forest Service Road 85 on Saturday, hiking toward a place called High Hut, a state-owned shelter in the forest, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. Searchers on snow mobiles followed footprints in the snow and found the man yesterday afternoon, who had made his way to High Hut, according to Brown. He was warm and uninjured and had been very well equipped for his outing, she said.

THEFT

• Centralia police were called just before 6 p.m. yesterday to the Centralia Outlet mall on Lum Road after subjects took 10 to 15 purses from the Coach Factory store and fled in a vehicle. The loss from the high-end handbag store is estimated at about $3,000, according to police.

• Centralia police took a report yesterday from the 200 block of West Main Street of unauthorized withdrawals from a woman’s account. It happened in March and the loss is somewhere between $400 and $500, according to police.

• Morton police were called on Sunday morning to a burglary to a business on the 300 block of state Route 7 in which somebody went inside during the night and took a welder, wire, hand tools and acetylene and oxygen tanks, according to the Morton Police Department.

• Somebody broke into a residence on the 100 block of Collar Avenue in Morton sometime between last Wednesday and Friday and stole a VHF/UHF FM “transceiver” valued at an estimated $300, according to the Morton Police Department.

• An individual alerted by his car alarm on the 1300 block of Belmont Avenue in Centralia yesterday afternoon went out to check and discovered someone had broken out a window and stolen an iPod, a GPS unit and stereo equipment, according to the Centralia Police Department.

POLICE PURSUITS

• The Washington State Patrol reports a driver who fled a traffic stop last night in Centralia crashed into a brick flower bed near Ellsbury and Alder streets. It happened about 11:40 p.m. near Interstate 5’s Mellen Street interchange. The 2005 Hyundai Accent was totaled, according to the state patrol. The driver fled the scene. A charge of hit and run is to be referred to the Lewis County Prosecutors Office for the suspected driver, a 24-year-old Oakville man, according to the investigating trooper.

• The (Longview) Daily News reports a police pursuit that began south of Vader on Interstate 5 yesterday evening ended when the driver stopped in the parking lot of the Cowlitz County Jail in Kelso and surrendered. Read it here.

FIRE BURNS DOWN TINY OLD HOUSE IN CENTRALIA

• An old logger’s shack in Centralia was destroyed by fire yesterday evening and investigators are still looking into the cause. Firefighters called about 5:30 p.m. to the approximately 20-foot by 20-foot house on the 1100 block of Woodland Avenue were able to contain the blaze to the 1920’s vintage building used for storage, according to Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Scott Snyder. A female occupant of a close-by residence was taken to the hospital by AMR but not for any kind of smoke or fire injury, Snyder said.

FIRE BREAKS OUT IN WINLOCK APARTMENT BUILDING

• A sprinkler system and a young man with a fire extinguisher prevented some “pretty disastrous consequences” when a fire broke out in a three-story downtown Winlock Building on Friday, according to Lewis County Fire District 15. Firefighters from Winlock, Napavine and Toledo were called about 10:30 a.m. to the structure on the 300 block of Northeast First Street. District 15 Firefighter Kevin Anderson said the blaze was contained to the apartment of origin on the second floor although it sustained smoke and water damage. The building burned many years go and when it was rebuilt, sprinkler were installed, Anderson said. Anderson said there are seven or eight apartments in the upper levels and had the flames escaped the apartment, the other occupants would have had to pass right by it to get out of the building. “The sprinklers did a great job, if there wouldn’t have been sprinklers in, there would have been some pretty disasterous consequences,” he said. The resident is being taken care of by the Red Cross and the other occupants of the building were able to return to their homes, according to Anderson.

PE ELL FIRE DEPARTMENT GETS BACK SOME STOLEN ITEMS

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports they arrested and jailed a 24-year-old Centralia man last Thursday found in possession of some of the equipment stolen from the Pe Ell fire department the week before last. More than $18,000 worth of tools and other items such as the Jaws of Life were removed from fire vehicles in a burglary to the station on state Route 6. The sheriff’s office said a tip led them to a Centralia man suspected of trying to sell a generator and subsequently the recovery of a tool box, an axe and a work light. Deputies booked the man into the Lewis County Jail for felony possession of stolen property, however, he was released from jail this morning with no charges filed. Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke said because the value of the items the individual was allegedly in possession of was less than $750, his case will be referred for a possible charge of misdemeanor possession of stolen property in Lewis County District Court. The sheriff’s office said today there is a second person of interest in the case they are looking for.

THEFT

• Police were called about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday to an area near the 300 block of James Street in Chehalis where a gray 2009 Honda car had been stolen.

• Centralia police took a report on Friday of a “Gator” ATV and a gas can taken from a building. The ATV was later found abandoned near a the river, according to police. The incident is associated with an address on the 500 block of Pioneer Way in Centralia.

• Police were called about 5:30 a.m. on Saturday to a tow company’s impound yard on Southwest Riverside Drive in Chehalis for an attempted theft. Someone had cut a gate lock and moved a car dolly trailer near the gate as though they were going to take it, according to police.

• Chehalis police were called Friday afternoon by a woman who lost her Visa card and then discovered someone had used it three times racking up charges of around $80. The woman thought she may have lost it walking along Southwest Cascade Avenue near Safeway, according to police.

• Several vehicles were prowled in an alley near the 900 block of E Street in Centralia, according to a report made to the Centralia Police Department on Saturday.

VANDALISM

• Centralia police were called about 10:20 a.m. yesterday to a business on the 200 block of South Pearl Street where someone had thrown rocks through several windows during the night.

DRUG PARAPHERNALIA TURNED OVER TO POLICE

• Centralia police were called on Friday to the 200 block of Centralia College Boulevard where unspecified drug paraphernalia was found in a basement. It was turned over to an officer.

COLLISIONS

• A school bus loaded with kids collided with a car in Chehalis on Friday morning but no injuries were reported, according to the Chehalis Police Department. A Toyota Camry was at Southwest William Avenue about 8 a.m. to make a right turn onto 13th Street when the bus pulled along side of it and turned right, according to police. The car’s front fender was damaged and no citations were issued, detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said.

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning that two people were injured in a single-vehicle collision about 2 p.m. on Saturday on the 1200 block of Boistfort Road in Curtis. A 27-year-old passenger was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with broken bones in his face and a broken leg, according to the sheriff’s office. The driver, 25-year-old Jessy R. Schiffman of Curtis, was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with cuts to his hands and a suspected broken ankle, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. The sheriff’s office suspects Schiffman was under the influence of alcohol and has referred the case for a possible charge of vehicular assault, Brown said. The sheriff’s office did not report what the vehicle collided with.

• A 19-year-old Chehalis man was arrested for driving under the influence following a collision about 12:20 a.m. on Sunday on Little Hanaford Road near Salzer Valley Road, according to the  Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office did not report what the vehicle collided with or if the driver, Alyn J. Kreidler, was injured.

• A 51-year-old Chehalis man was arrested for driving under the influence following a collision about 10:15 p.m. on Saturday on Shorey Road near Tune Road outside Chehalis, the  Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning. The sheriff’s office did not report what the vehicle collided with or if the driver, Mark (or Marc) W. Boles was injured. That information was not readily available today.