SUSPICIOUS FIRE DAMAGES TWO HOMES
• A carport and two adjacent mobile homes caught fire yesterday evening in Centralia in an incident the police department is calling suspicious. Firefighters were called just after 5 p.m. to the 1400 block of Harrison Avenue where the carport was fully involved in flames, according to Riverside Fire Authority. The blaze spread and did minor damage to a vacant trailer on one side, but more severe damage to the other, according to Fire Capt. Casey McCarthy. Nobody was home when it happened, McCarthy said. One firefighter was injured and taken to the hospital where she was treated and then released, he said. The cause is under investigation.
THEFT
• An orange and silver backhoe was reported stolen from the 200 block of Jerrells Road in Mossyrock, along with a cable and lock blocking the driveway, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said this morning. It appeared somebody drove onto the Portland man’s property with a with a trailer and took the tractor sometime before Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office. The amount of the loss is unknown, the sheriff’s office said.
• A $3,000 hand-held, gas operated compactor was reported stolen from the back of a trailer on the 1800 block of Van Wormer Street in Centralia sometime between Sunday and Monday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The Wacker brand compactor is black and aluminum, the sheriff’s office said.
• A heavy-duty load tarp valued at $600 was stolen from where it was covering hay stacks on the 700 block of Independence Road in Rochester sometime between Friday and Tuesday, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
• Centralia police took a report from the 1000 block of Eckerson Road at 7:30 a.m. yesterday and told by a male that his female acquaintance stole his computer and cell phone when he left to get breakfast.
• A laptop computer was stolen from a vehicle around 4:30 a.m. today at the 300 block of West Summa Street in Centralia, according to the Centralia Police Department.
INTRUDER
• Police were called about 4:20 p.m. yesterday when workers went to a home being remodeled on the 1400 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia and found someone had been “squatting” there. The subject, who apparently had gotten inside through a window ran out the back door when workers arrived, according to the Centralia Police Department.
POWER POLE SNAPS
• Riverside Fire Authority reported they were called yesterday morning to the 1200 block of Alder Street where a power pole broke in half and fell when a transformer on it blew out. Nobody was hurt, Fire Capt. Scott Snyder said. Snyder said the pole was “eroded” and snapped. Firefighters isolated the area while city light workers made repairs, he said. Centralia police were called and concluded the pole had possibly been struck by an unknown vehicle. Electricity was knocked out to several area homes, according to police.
VANDALISM
• Chehalis police were called about 4:45 p.m. to Southwest 11th Street where someone had smashed a window out of a vehicle.
WRECK
• A 21-year-old Centralia woman totaled her car when she lost control of it at the 400 block of River Heights Road outside Centralia yesterday, running into a ditch and a utility pole, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s office. It happened just after 1 p.m. and was described as a “possible injury accident” by the sheriff’s office. The driver was taken by private vehicle to the hospital, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. The driver was cited for traveling too fast, Brown said.