[1]Arriving firefighters saw flames coming out second-story window.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – What ignited a house fire in Chehalis displacing eight residents is still unknown but a closer look at a stove on the second floor in an area converted into a kitchen is in order, according to authorities.
“I’m still working on the investigation, so I can’t really say for sure,” Fire Investigator Jay Birley said.
The fire broke out at mid-morning on Thursday on Southwest 14th Street just east of Wilson Avenue.
The two-story structure originally was a church. It’s owner operated it as a kind of halfway house, she called House of the Rising Son until the city raised zoning issues with her a few years ago.
Birley said interviews with the occupants indicate a woman had been upstairs to retrieve DVDs and glasses, went downstairs and when she went back upstairs she discovered the fire. She thought he saw something burning on the stove, Birley said.
She alerted another resident who attempted to put it out with a fire extinguisher but was unsuccessful, he said.
One man and one woman were taken to the hospital for smoke and breathing issues, according to responders.
Birley counted six bedrooms in the house and only found one smoke detector, which had been taken down and wasn’t working, he said.
Two of the occupants were small children.
The Red Cross was summoned to assist the residents. The house is still standing, but the city red tagged the building as uninhabitable.
Chehalis Fire Department Chief Ken Cardinale said the stove was situated in an area determined to be the fire’s origin. He said renovations for which no city permit had been obtained were discovered.
BIrley said if the home is insured, the insurance company will want to have the stove examined.
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For background, read “Eight people displaced by Chehalis house fire” from Thursday April 6, 2017, here [2]