Adams Co. Fire District 5 keeps busy
OTHELLO — Adams County Fire District 5 crews responded to two house fires, one of which destroyed the house, and a brush fire in the space of about 12 hours Wednesday. Strong winds rekindled the brush fire briefly Thursday morning.
Chief Gary Lebacken said Thursday that district firefighters responded to the two house fires, two separate smoke alarm investigations, a traffic accident and the brush fire, all before 3 p.m.
“And that’s yesterday in a nutshell,” he said.
The first fire was reported at about 2 a.m. in a single-family home in the 200 block of East Larch Street in Othello. The occupants had left a few hours before, and no one was home at the time of the fire, Lebacken said. The house was a total loss.
Lebacken said the fire appeared to have started in the master bedroom. It’s believed to be accidental, he said, but no cause has been determined.
The second house fire, also a single-family residence, occurred at about 1 p.m. in the 1100 block of South Fourth Avenue. It damaged the house’s bathroom but didn’t destroy the residence, Lebacken said. The house was unoccupied.
The brush fire was reported at about 2 p.m. in the 1200 block of North Broadway Avenue, near the Columbia Basin Railroad tracks. Lebacken said the brush fire started as the result of an open fire at a transient camp.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office announced the wildfire yesterday afternoon in a brief statement and said it was contained just a few hours later.
The fire burned about 10 acres Wednesday night, he said. Fire district crews had to return to the scene Thursday morning.
“We contained it, and then the wind didn’t cooperate,” he said.
The National Weather Service is warning of extreme fire danger and reduced air quality in the Columbia Basin over the next few days.
A press release from the Spokane Weather Forecast Office of the NWS said that breezy and very dry conditions could be expected in the Columbia Basin through Saturday. Air quality alerts are also in effect due to smoke from fires around the Inland Northwest, the release said.
The fire risk is exacerbated by strong winds, the release said. The wind was expected to be heaviest during the day Friday, with gusts up to 24 miles per hour.
