Chehalis House Devastated by Fire, Three Suffer Smoke Inhalation

A house in Chehalis was severely damaged by flame Saturday afternoon, with four people making it out of the house and to safety, albeit with three of them suffering from symptoms of smoke inhalation.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, said Chehalis Fire Chief Ken Cardinale. He noted that — although it hasn’t been confirmed — preliminary investigation indicates it was caused by smoking material, such as a cigarette, not being properly put out.

Cardinale said they were dispatched to the fire at 3:55 p.m. Jessie Garman-Bush, who lives a couple of blocks from the house that was burning — located in the 500 block of Southwest McFadden Avenue — said she could see the billowing smoke from her place, and went over to see what was happening.

She ended up getting there before the first fire truck arrived, she said, and asked someone at the scene if everyone was out of the house. She learned that there were two women still inside, and so she went in to see if she could find them.

Flames were shooting from the back of the house and from an area of the roof near a porch roof. Smoke billowed from the open front door, she said.

Garman-Bush said she found two women sitting near the entrance of the small home. One of them uses a wheelchair to get around, she said, but didn’t have the chair with her where she was.

Garman-Bush said she helped the woman get to safety. She helped her get about 10 feet from the house before the woman wasn’t able to make it any further. Then a man at the scene helped her take her the rest of the way to safety.

While they were helping her, Garman-Bush said she heard what sounded like a small explosion inside the house. The door slammed shut and flames shot from a window.

The other woman who was in the house made it out, too.

Garman-Bush said when she got home, she realized that her coat had been burnt because of her close proximity to the blaze. She also said, on Monday, that she still felt soreness in her throat from the smoke.

Cardinale said it took them about 20 minutes to get the fire under control, but they remained on the scene until about 6 p.m. Crews from Lewis County Fire Protection District 6, Riverside Fire Authority and Thurston County also responded.

It was a two-alarm fire, said Cardinale, because of the number of residents that needed medical assistance. Two of them had minor to moderate symptoms of smoke inhalation. Another needed to have a tube put down into her lungs because of burns — something that may help paramedics work on the patient later on because of potential swelling, he said.

Cardinale wasn’t certain of the patients’ status, and a representative from American Medical Response, the agency that took them from the scene, was unable to provide the information, either.