Storm starts fires, damages property

GRANT COUNTY — Zelma Springen pulls a twig from where the wind drove it into the lawn of her K Street Northeast home, north of Moses Lake.

“This is from the Walnut tree,” she says, pointing to a tree about 10 feet away from where the twig landed.

Near the tree sits half of the roof of her barn, which was ripped off during one of thunderstorms between Ephrata and Soap Lake.

Springen was watching television when the storm hit her house at slightly after 3 p.m. When she looked outside she saw the rain, then hail coming down in pieces about a quarter-inch wide.

“The ground was white,” she said. “I didn’t see (the roof) come down or come off. I was in the house and the awning here was bouncing. I started hollering for Arnold (Springen) and I didn’t know where he was and then when I saw that, I thought, ‘Oh, I hope he wasn’t under that.’”

Her husband Arnold Springen was in the garage next to the barn when the storm blew in from the northeast. He points to a wheelbarrow next to the barn.

“That wheelbarrow had 3 inches of rain in it and it only lasted about, oh I imagine, three to four minutes,” he said. “I saw that part of the roof just go right over the top. It’s been on there a long time, but I’ve never seen a wind like that here ever.”

The wind also ripped a piece of plywood from the side of the barn and sent it spinning toward the house. It stopped next to the Springens’ camp trailer, which is next to their house.

“It had inch-and-a-half screws holding it in place and it blew it right out of there,” Arnold Springen said.

The Springens’ house was just one area affected by the storm. Lightning strikes caused several fires between Ephrata and Soap Lake Thursday night.

Responding units included the Ephrata Fire Department, Grant County Fire District 7 and 13. Other fire districts may have been called to assist with the fires. Soap Lake Fire Department was placed on standby.

Emergency service personnel were advised to use caution while responding to the fires due to the heavy rain, hail and continued lightning strikes. 

The fires were in the area of the 3000 block of state Route 28, High Hill Road, SR 28 and D.5 Northeast, Road A near the irrigation canal, state Route 17 and Trout Lodge Road and SR 17 and Rocky Ford Creek, according to radio traffic of Multi Agency Communications Center (MACC).

Additional personnel were summoned to aid the high volume of fires.

The lightning strikes led to brief power outages and a power surge in Moses Lake affecting businesses and highway traffic lights. According to MACC radio traffic, the stop lights at the SR 17 and Grape Drive intersection were temporarily out of service.

The Moses Lake Fire Department responded to an electrical hazard at a business on South Pioneer Way, possibly caused due to the brief power surge.

Further information was not available before deadline due to the fire districts responding to the fires.