Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
House on East Commercial Gutted Wednesday Morning, Under Investigation
Home at 119 E. Commercial Street gutted by fire early Wednesday morning.
Local officials secure the scene of a house fire on East Commercial Street: (l to r) County Building Inspector Jake Davis, County Fire Marshal Kim Lyonnais, Sheriff Rocky Miller. Investigators from Walla Walla will arrive Thursday morning to search for a cause.
A fire early Wednesday morning destroyed this home at 119 E. Commercial Street in Dayton.
Fire at 119 E. Commercial Street in Dayton gutted the home and burned the neighbor's fence on the east side of the property but did not damage any other homes.
The fire at 119 E. Commercial Street was mostly contained to the east, front side of the home.
View of the west side of the house at 119 E. Commercial Street in Dayton gutted by fire Wednesday.
Home owned by George "Bill" Waltermire on East Commercial Street destroyed by fire Wednesday.
DAYTON – Investigators from Walla Walla will try Thursday morning to determine the cause of a fire that seriously damaged a home here early Wednesday.
The house at 119 E. Commercial St., owned by longtime Dayton resident George "Bill" Waltermire, was reported ablaze by passers-by just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, according to local officials. Waltermire has said he was out at a convenience store when he heard the news, Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller said.
The fire, though primarily contained to the east side of the structure, gutted the home and damaged a Corvette parked in the front lawn. A portion of the fence between Waltermire's home and the house next door to the east burned as well, but no other property was damaged in the fire and nobody was home at the time of the blaze, officials confirmed.
This is the second incident of residential fire in Dayton in two weeks. Just around the corner, about two blocks away, two homes on East Washington Avenue were destroyed by fire on the night of June 28.
"That's why we're calling in a team," County Fire Marshal Kim Lyonnais said. "People want to know what's going on, and we want to know too."
Officials will secure the scene overnight until the team arrives Thursday morning. Local investigators weren't able to determine the cause of the East Washington Avenue fire. The vacant home on the corner lot where the fire originated burned to the ground in the blaze.
"This time we hope to get answers," Lyonnais said.
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