Dayton Home Destroyed by Fire

DAYTON – Investigators from Walla Walla were on scene last week trying to determine the cause of a fire that seriously damaged a home here early last Wednesday.

The house at 119 E. Commercial Ave., owned by longtime Dayton resident George "Bill" Waltermire, was reported ablaze by passers-by just after 1 a.m. on July 15, 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 residential fire in Dayton in the last three 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 last week. "People want to know what's going on, and we want to know too."

Officials secured the scene overnight until the team could arrive on Thursday morning. Local investigators weren't able to determine the cause of the 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.