News brief: Tenino family wakes to house fire

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Nobody was injured but a family of five is displaced after a house fire in Tenino on Saturday morning that damaged a home built in 1897.

Six fire departments responded to the blaze at about 6 a.m. on the 100 block of Wichman Street South, according to Thurston County Fire District 12.

Smoke alarms woke up the residents who were able to get out, Battalion Chief James Fowler said.

Arriving units found flames at the back of the house and with help were finally able to extinguish it, he said.

It began in the area of a wood stove and destroyed the back entry way, a pantry and a laundry room, he said. A daughter’s bedroom at the rear of the home sustained smoke and water damage as well, according to Fowler.

Fire District 12 is waiting for the insurance investigators to look into the cause.

The two-story structure is one of the original homes in Tenino, Fowler said, known as the McArthur House.

“It’s a beautiful old farmhouse is what it is,” Fowler said. “We had to cut a lot of holes in it.”

The Red Cross was called to assist the two adults and three children, he said.

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