[1]A fire investigator is looking at a possible electrical issue as a cause to last night's blaze on Harms Road. / Courtesy photo by Ted McCarty
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A 4-year-old boy is being credited with alerting family members to a fire last night in the Ethel area that destroyed the upper level of a home.
Eight people were in the house on the 100 block of Harms Road and Kurt Mullins had just put his two little grandchildren, ages 4 and 5, to bed upstairs, Fire Investigator Ted McCarty said this morning.
“Shortly after, the kids yelled they could smell smoke in the bedroom,” McCarty said. “He went in, found fire in a storage space, and at that point he gathered up the kids, and a couple older kids and they all got outside,” McCarty said.
Lewis County Fire District 8 Assistant Chief Don Taylor today called Byron Wilson “our local hero”. Taylor didn’t have the name of the other child.
A smoke alarm also went off and everyone escaped unhurt, Taylor said.
McCarty described the occupants as Mullins. his wife, three children and three grandchildren.
The 9 p.m. call to Lewis County Fire District 8 drew some 35 firefighters from four districts.
McCarty called it a stubborn fire.
When the second crew to enter the 1920s wood-frame house attempted to get upstairs, the stairwell was too hot and there was fire overhead so they had be pulled out, responders said.
Taylor, the incident commander, said they sprayed about 25,000 gallons of water on the fire.
The upper story was burned off and parts of it it collapsed down into the first floor.
McCarty said it appeared to start in the storage area under the roof’s eves and he’s looking at an electrical issue for the cause, but has nothing concrete yet.
The house is insured, he said. The Red Cross was contacted to assist the residents.
Taylor said it was knocked down by 3 a.m. and the last firefighters didn’t depart until about 6:30 this morning.
It’s been a record-breaking year for the Salkum area fire district as far as structure fires, Taylor said.
Last month, a Christmas Day fire chased six people out of a burning mobile home on Maple Crest Drive, and the month before, firefighters spent Thanksgiving night extinguishing a blaze at Misty Morning Dairy.
“Five, maybe six, would be a busy year,” Taylor said. “This past year, I think we’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 15.”
The assistant fire chief didn’t have a good idea of why so many fires, but he is concerned it won’t slow down anytime soon.
“We had that earthquake and it’s guaranteed it damaged several fireplaces or chimneys” he said. “And I don’t know if people realize this.”
As winter continues and folks use their fireplaces more, the creosote can be expected to keep building up, he said, and damaged masonry is vulnerable.
While he isn’t pointing to that as a cause of the Harms Road blaze, Taylor said the bricks in portions of the chimney there were packed with the flammable material.