Crews work to extinguish fire on E Street yesterday afternoon. / Courtesy photo by Derrick Paul
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – An investigator is looking for the cause of a house fire that displaced a family of four in Vader yesterday afternoon.
Cowlitz-Lewis Fire District 20 Assistant Chief Ruth Crear said six other fire departments joined them at the home on the 800 block of E Street.
“It’s a total loss, the house and contents,” Crear said. “There’s nothing for them to salvage.”
The one and a half story residence was home to a couple, their grown son and their 16-year-old nephew, she said.
Crews were called at 3:16 p.m. after the teen got off a school bus and noticed fire in the back, and notified the two men who were inside, unaware anything was burning, according to Fire Investigator Derrick Paul.
Crear described the initial fire as outside a bedroom, but Paul’s understanding was the main part of the fire at first was in an adjacent shed and moved into the house.
A firefighter from Toledo was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with a leg or ankle injury, according to Paul. Nobody else was injured, Crear said.
The Red Cross was contacted to assist the family, who are staying with relatives in Vader, according to Crear.
Approximately two dozen firefighters battled the blaze, which re-ignited about 2 o’clock this morning.
“We were there eight hours the first time and two and a half hours the second time,” Crear said.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter