Firefighters find smoldering rags in downtown Chehalis bar

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – It turned out to be a neatly folded stack of recently laundered towels on a shelf.

That could have burned up a popular Chehalis night spot, if not for the fact that someone smelled something not quite right before the business closed.

It was about midnight last night when someone from Sabra’s Place walked around the corner to the Chehalis Fire Station and said there was a strange odor inside the restaurant.

The crew went into the building on the 300 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue and looked around. The air conditioner was checked, the area was searched and finally, the source was located, Fire Investigator Ted McCarty said

It was coming from a stack of towels in a cabinet, McCarty said. They were just slightly smoking.

Fire Investigator Derrick Paul related to McCarty that he took them outside, laid them out and found heavy charring in the middle.

“So, they were actually spontaneously combusting,” McCarty said.

Paul asked if they’d been used previously to clean up anything oily or chemicals. He was told yes, but they’d been washed since, he was told.

Most people know that oily rags left laying around can ignite, but firefighters know that even after they are laundered, they are still risky, according to McCarty. They should be stored in something metal with a lid on it, he said.

“In this case, luckily they smelled something,” he said. “Otherwise, we’d have had a big fire.”

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2 Responses to “Firefighters find smoldering rags in downtown Chehalis bar”

  1. BobbyinLC says:

    Sleeping Giant: ha ha count on you to see the “bright” side of things. You crack me up.

  2. The Sleeping Giant says:

    Those are the same oily rags they clean the tables with.