Propane explosion, fire hits Centralia home

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The garage door burns off a home in north Centralia this morning / Courtesy photo by Jamie Kaiser

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Fire officials are looking into the cause of a blaze that ignited at a Centralia home this morning.

Nobody was hurt, but the interior of the garage off Harrison Avenue just three driveways north of Riverside Fire Authority’s main station was left blackened and charred.

“It went through the hallway and a little bit into the kitchen but we stopped it there,” Assistant Fire Chief Mike Kytta said.

Firefighters were called about 10:30 a.m. to the single-story house on the 1900 block of Harrison Avenue.

Kytta said he understood the resident had just returned home from taking his wife to work.

Across Harrison, neighbor Jamie Kaiser said he heard a loud noise and saw a plume of smoke.

“I dropped what I was doing and ran over there,” Kaiser said. “I tried to call 911, but I kept getting a busy signal.”

Another explosion almost took him off his feet, Kaiser said.

“It blew my hair back,” he said. “A propane canister came flying out into the driveway.”

Kaiser said he was trying to get a neighbor to move his car.

A Volkswagen Beetle inside the garage was ruined, according to Kytta.

The home is in a neighborhood called Golden Estates.

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Firefighters examine the garage area of the single-story house in north Centralia.

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