Updated at 7:42 p.m.
MOSSYROCK FIRE SLOWED BY PASSERBY
• A man on his way to church in the Mossyrock area yesterday morning is credited with stopping a structure fire from ruining people’s belongings at a storage business on the 100 block of Kjesbu Road. Lewis County Fire District 3 Chief Doug Fosburg said crews were called about 7:45 a.m. to a former chicken barn converted to 22 plus storage units. The passerby grabbed a fire extinguisher and kept the fire contained to a mechanical room containing a compressor, a welder and the electrical panel box that is suspect, according to Fosburg. The items in the other units didn’t even suffer smoke damage, he said.
OUTDOOR BURNING GETS OUT OF HAND
• Tenino area firefighters were called about 1:45 p.m. yesterday when embers from a pile of stumps being burned spread and caused a brush fire at property on High Valley Lane off 143rd Avenue Southwest. Crews were dispatched about 1:45 p.m. and were on the scene roughly seven hours, protecting structures including homes from the fire that spread to about five acres, Thurston County Fire District 12 Battalion Chief Jim Fowler said. “The wind was just way too windy for anybody to be burning anything yesterday,” Fowler said. Firefighters from the state Department of Natural Resources were summoned and used a small excavator to dig a trail around the area, he said. It was stopped at nine acres, according to DNR.
GLENOMA WILDFIRE BIGGER BUT HALFWAY CONTAINED
• At noontime today, DNR reported the fire in east Lewis County on Dog Mountain had burned about 100 acres within a 170 acre area of forest land, but called it 50 percent contained. Bulldozers, fire engines and water-dropping helicopters are employed in the task of extinguishing the fire that was initially fanned and spread by dry east winds, according to public information officer Chuck Turley. Steep terrain increases the challenge of reaching pockets of burning material, Turley noted. Members of all five fire districts in the east end, along with some from Napavine and Toledo, responded on Saturday and worked into the late evening with crews from DNR and personnel from Port Blakely, the timber land’s owner. DNR said today approximately 80 individuals continue to be assigned to the fire fight south of Glenoma. The cause remains under investigation, according to Turley.
CAPITOL FOREST FIRE GROWS
• A noontime update on the wildfire in the Capitol Forest northwest of Littlerock pegged it as only 6 percent contained, with about 80 people working to put it out. The fire has burned 60 acres of land that contains logging slash and 20-year-old trees, according to DNR. Some recreation trails and roads in the area of the C-Line and C-400 roads remain closed, according to a news release. Crews from West Thurston Regional Fire Authority initially responded about 12:15 a.m. on Sunday after a report of a fire at Capitol Peak. Bucoda’s Fire Chief Jim Fowler was among those who responded as he and a fellow firefighter teaching nine students at the McLane-Black Lake Fire Department on Sunday loaded their class up and headed to Capitol Forest. It was unexpected field training for a wild land Firefighter II class, Fowler said.
POLICE: VERY SURLY DRUNK
• A 31-year-old Centralia man allegedly threatened three males with a knife after they intervened while he was allegedly beating his girlfriend inside a vehicle in an alley in Centralia yesterday evening. Officers called about 5:35 p.m. say the trio pulled Pioquinto Rodriguez-Garcia off the 41-year-old woman and he slashed all four tires n the vehicle before fleeing the area on the 600 block of Marion Street. Police found Rodriguez-Garcia a short distance away and also took into evidence a knife police dog Lobo found in a nearby yard, according to the Centralia Police Department. The initial dispute was because the girlfriend didn’t want Rodriguez-Garcia driving while intoxicated, according to police. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail for two counts of second-degree assault, misdemeanor assault and malicious mischief, police reported.
UNDERAGE PARTY BUSTED IN CENTRALIA, ONE HOSPITALIZED
• About a dozen young people found themselves in trouble over the weekend when a Centralia mother returned home and found her son and daughter were hosting a drinking party, and which subsequently included a 20-year-old male getting transported to the hospital. Deputies and Centralia police arriving at the 1100 block of Long Road about 12:15 a.m. on Saturday found the unconscious subject laying outside in massive amounts of vomit and summoned aid, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The cases involving one 19-year-old and 10 other individuals under 18 were referred to prosecutors for filing of charges, according to the sheriff’s office. A 16-year-old who was reportedly seen trying to open the doors of all the patrol vehicles on the scene was taken to the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
MISSING TRAILER
• A deputy was called Saturday to the 200 block of U.S. Highway 12 south of Chehalis about a cargo trailer stolen overnight from Garrison Auctioneers. The 1991 trailer with a black top and white sides has a license plate of 804 6UY, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It was taken sometime between 6 p.m. on Friday and 7 o’clock the following morning, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.
SNOW, DARKNESS, END MOUNTAIN BIKER’S OUTING
• Deputies retrieved a mountain biker on Saturday night who headed up a forest service road in East Lewis County wearing only shorts and a light shirt, not realizing that there was four feet of snow at his destination and found himself in the dark with no flashlight. The 37-year-old Cinebar resident called 911 about 9 p.m. on his cell phone and asked for help getting back down, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. He had planned a ride to Newaukum Lake and around Rooster Rock, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown. He was located about five miles up the Forest Road 71, and taken home, Brown said.
FROM THE COURTHOUSE
• It took lawyers until about 4 p.m. today to pick a jury for the first-degree murder trial of Centralian Weston G. Miller. Miller, 30, is accused [1] of shooting 43-year-old David Wayne Carson in Miller’s house on B Street on March 13 of last year. He claims self defense, prosecutors say it was an unprovoked attack. Opening statements are set to begin in the morning in Lewis County Superior Court.
AND MORE
• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for driving with a suspended license, warrants; responses for minor vehicle accidents, shoplifting, intoxicated people, kids and dogs running around without supervision, parental custody issues, possible suicide, wallets missing and found … and more.