Investigators Say Northwest Pediatrics Center Fire Was Arson

Investigators have determined a fire at a children’s medical clinic in Centralia was caused by an arsonist Saturday night, according to the Riverside Fire Authority.

While the examination of the scene at Northwest Pediatrics Center has been completed, RFA and the Centralia Police Department are continuing the investigation.

Sgt. Carl Buster said authorities have no suspects at this time and are unsure of how the fire, which was lit outside the building, was started.

Interviews will be conducted to hopefully get a lead on the possible arsonist.

“But it’s like starting with nothing,” Buster said.

Crews have collected debris to test for possible fuel starters.

“If we can figure out how, maybe we can link it to something else, somehow, someway, but really we don’t have a whole lot,” Buster said.

Unless authorities get lucky, Buster said a case like this is usually difficult to solve.

The fire at Northwest Pediatrics at 1909 Cooks Hill Road was reported at about 8:10 p.m., after a police officer passing by the building saw smoke coming from the east building of the clinic.

Lisa McKay, practice manager at Northwest Pediatrics, said operations in the east building have been shifted primarily to the west building, which was unharmed in the fire. The clinic opened at its usual time and plans to continue with its normal hours.

“It’ll be a little cramped, but we’re OK,” McKay said.

Northwest Pediatrics, a Christian-based medical clinic, also has locations in Chehalis and Rochester. At all of its locations, Northwest Pediatrics has about 55 total employees and serves about 300 patients daily.

Northwest Pediatrics will notify patients about changes to appointment locations during their reminder calls. If schedule changes are proposed, the clinic calls ahead to make sure the changes are OK with the patients.

Some providers may be transferred to Chehalis or Rochester, and McKay said it will be up to patients if they want to follow their providers to another clinic or take appointments at Centralia West.

“We’ve got an amazing team here of employees and our providers are awesome, so you’re not going to see a lapse in service here,” McKay said.

The Quick Kids family walk-in clinic will continue to operate Monday through Friday and Sunday evenings.

Health & Hope Medical Outreach, which utilizes volunteer staff to serve people who need urgent care on a walk-in basis, free of charge, is normally open Tuesday evenings for three hours at Centralia West. While the west building was unharmed in the fire, Jennifer Polley, medical director with Health & Hope, said the clinic will not be operating Tuesday. After regrouping, the clinic should be operational on March 10.

On Monday, McKay said she is not yet aware of the full extent of the damage, which is primarily in the roof and ceiling. But she said repairs will likely take two to three months.

McKay said initially employees at Northwest Pediatrics were in shock, but the community has been supportive of the clinic.

“It’s been hard for everybody and we’re still kind of trying to work through details and getting everything together, but we’ll be fine,”McKay said. “God has a plan and we’re just going with his plan.”

According to Riverside Fire Authority Chief Mike Kytta, firefighters found extensive smoke coming from the back portion of the structure and began to fight fire that had begun to spread through the northern part of the building.

“We found fire that made it into the attic space area, so we did cut some vent holes in that area,” Kytta said, adding that crews also had to pull out portions of the ceiling and walls to fight the fire.

No one was in the building at the time the fire was reported, Kytta said. The chief added that the wind blowing from the north likely made the smoke more visible to the officer passing by, as Cooks Hill Road runs just to the south of the Northwest Pediatrics complex.

Firefighters from Chehalis and the West Thurston Regional Fire Authority joined Riverside Fire Authority crews who responded to the fire. Centralia police officers shut down Cooks Hill Road westbound at Military Road to allow crews to access the area freely.

Several staff members from Northwest Pediatrics stood along the sidewalk in front of Cooks Hill Road, watching teams of firefighters and incident commanders work to put out the flames. Firefighters gave employees of the clinic the OK to go inside the west building, which Kytta said was untouched by the fire.

Kytta said at 10 p.m. that firefighters would remain on scene for awhile to ensure the fire was thoroughly put out and no hot spots would flare up. Not much was visible from the exterior of the building in the dark of the night, but what was inside told a much different story.

“There is significant damage to the building,” Kytta said, adding that the full extent of the damage would not be known until firefighters’ work was complete.