Sheriff Seeks Adam Hermanns As "Fire Witness"

WAITSBURG - The Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office is requesting local residents' assistance in locating Adams Hermanns, whom they call "a potential witness" to Tuesday night's fire at his parents' residence on W. 2^nd Street in Waitsburg.

"We are attempting to locate Adam as a potential witness related to the fire," Undersheriff Eddie Freyer said in an interview Wednesday.

Freyer, who came to the scene of the fire after midnight Tuesday and again on Wednesday morning, said his office is taking the incident very seriously, investigating it as possible arson.

"We're giving this a full-court press," he said. "Anyone with information about the fire itself or unusual activities in the area from 11 p.m. to midnight should contact us."

Several fire districts responded to the local call for mutual aid just before midnight to control a fully engulfed structure fire that destroyed Andy and Pam Hermanns' garage and two cars.

Freyer said the fire was hot enough and close enough that it could have ignited the Hermanns' residence where siding was already beginning to melt by the time firefighters arrived at the scene to bring the blaze under control.

He praised Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Jackson for his actions, which Freyer said may have saved the couple's lives. Jackson noticed the fire while on patrol of Waitsburg. He called in the emergency and woke the sleeping couple.

Had he not, the heat alone could have set the house on fire and trapped the Hermanns inside, Freyer said.

Two deputies have been put on the arson investigation.

The Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office can be reached at 509-524-5400.