News brief: East wind set conditions for fires in East End

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Firefighters were hoppin’ around Randle and Glenoma yesterday as blazes ignited near Lake Scanewa, along U.S. Highway 12 and in brush off Bowen Road near a county shop.

No injuries were reported, but a battle that began just after 11 a.m. continued until long after dinner time.

A large piece of logging equipment was destroyed by fire off Falls Road southwest of Randle in the morning and some four acres of brush burned last night, according to Lewis County Fire District 14 Chief Jeff Jaques. He couldn’t say for sure how large the last fire was, he said.

“It’s hard to gauge in the dark,” Jaques said.

In between, at a little after 1 p.m., crews were called to the 8600 block of U.S. Highway 1 in Glenoma.

There, a shed fire spread to close to two acres, according to Jaques.

A car was also burned and flames nearly got to an unoccupied mobile home on the property, Fire Investigator Jay Birley said.

He doesn’t know what what sparked the Glenoma fire, Birley said late this afternoon.

Jaques said they put out a grass fire on Monday and another on Saturday, as well.

“We’ve had like a week of a steady east wind blowing, which dries the finer grasses,” he said.

It’s not unheard of for brush fires to pop up this time of year, according to the chief.

The largest wildfire in the area he can recall over the years actually happened during the month of February, he said. That was 41 acres.

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