SUSPECTED DRUG DEALER ARRESTED ON KRESKY AVE.
• A 24-year-old man was arrested at gunpoint in front of McDonalds restaurant in Chehalis yesterday following a drug investigation by the Chehalis Police Department. It happened about 2:15 p.m. on Northeast Kresky Avenue, blocking the roadway for a short time as several officers gathered to make the arrest. Christopher T. Canfield, a Centralia resident, was arrested without further incident and booked into the Lewis County Jail for delivery of a controlled substance, according to police. A small amount of suspected heroin was found, and he had previously allegedly sold drugs to a confidential informant, according to detective Sgt. Rick McNamara. Two individuals in the vehicle were not wanted and were released, McNamara said.
MYSTERIOUS FIRE IN CENTRALIA
• A fire that started in a wood pile beneath steps to a deck on a Centralia area home yesterday caused an estimated $1,500 to $2,000 damage, according to Riverside Fire Authority. A resident smelled smoke, put it out with a garden hose and went back inside, but called 911 about 3:15 p.m. when it reignited breaking a window, fire Capt. Ken Colombo said. The damage to the home on the 900 block of Ham Hill Road was minimal, he said. The department called upon its new fire dog, a Labrador who with its owner joined their investigative team a few months ago, Colombo said. The local dog is one of a few in the state trained to sniff out materials such as gasoline and kerosene, he said. It didn’t clearly “alert” on any suspected materials like that yesterday though, he said. The cause of the fire is unknown.
THEFT
• Centralia police took a report from the 800 block of Marion Street yesterday about several tools taken from a garage.
• A sewing machine was stolen from a business on the 300 block of North Tower Avenue in Centralia, according to a report made yesterday to the Centralia Police Department.
• Chehalis police were called Wednesday about brass doorknobs and hardware being removed from a rental home when a tenant moved out from Adams Avenue.
VANDALISM
• Police took a report of a window being broken on a building on the 700 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia yesterday morning.
DRUGS
• A 32-year-old man was arrested just before midnight on Wednesday for possession of methamphetamine. John Unterwagner, no hometown noted, was booked into the Lewis County Jail after he was contacted by an officer at West Main and North Oak streets, according to the Centralia Police Department.
DUI WRECK
• Deputies and aid responded about 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday to a vehicle accident on the 200 block of Independence Road outside Centralia. Alan L. Wilder, 45, of Rochester, was subsequently arrested for driving under the influence, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
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Notes from behind the news: Hello people; we live in the Ring of Fire!
April 7th, 2011By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
County officials really, really want citizens to listen up.
On Friday, Lewis County Emergency Management sent out a news release reminding folks the Pacific Northwest is vulnerable to same type of massive earthquake which hit Japan last month.
Drop, cover and hold
Their message was accompanied by a call for the public to take part in a statewide “Drop, cover and hold” earthquake drill the morning of April 20.
“More than 90 percent of the world’s total earthquakes and 80 percent of the world’s destructive earthquakes happen in the ‘Ring of Fire’ (a horseshoe-shaped zone of volcanic and seismic activity that coincides roughly with the Pacific Ocean borders),” a news release from Emergency Management stated. “Both Japan and our area area included in the Ring of Fire.”
On Monday, county commissioners proclaimed April disaster preparedness month, noting among other things that members of the public should prepare themselves to be self-sufficient for at least three days following a natural or man-made disaster.
And yesterday, Sgt. Ross McDowell, deputy director of Lewis County Emergency Management, arranged for a 3.4 magnitude earthquake to strike in East Lewis County near Mount Rainier.
The 10:45 a.m. trembler was 17 miles east of Ashford – according to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network – and it was felt in places such as Morton, Randle, Packwood and even Yakima Portland and Edmonds, according to McDowell.
It was relatively shallow, at four and a half miles deep, but it was one of the largest in the zone on the past 10 to 15 years, McDowell noted.
“It is advisable to take the recent Japan earthquake seriously and improve emergency preparedness at home and at work,” McDowell wrote in a news release today.
Okay, of course McDowell didn’t really cause the earth to move, but I think he’s making some good points. And his tone is quite serious.
That Ring of Fire information got my attention.
Other passages from the four-plus pages of information distributed by Emergency Management between Friday and today: “Sooner or later … A massive quake will hit the Pacific Northwest.” and “The region has been relatively lucky in the last several decades …”
I think McDowell would like people to review this page, about “Drop, cover and hold”.
Some of the other advice McDowell passes along can be found at www.ready.gov – Get a kit. Make a plan. Be informed.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Posted in Columns and commentary | Comments Closed