Columbia County Plagued with Fires

DAYTON – Fires are on just about everyone's mind right now. In Columbia County, investigators are struggling to reach conclusions regarding five fires in the last four weeks.

"We're just swamped with this," County Fire Marshal Kim Lyonnais said.

Many of these officials also have their hands full giving aid to firefighters battling the Blue Creek Fire, which has consumed over 6,000 acres of land and one home in Walla Walla County (see story on Page 10).

The series of local fires began on the last weekend in June, with a fire that started in a derelict home on East Washington Avenue in Dayton and destroyed not only that building but the home next door.

Two weeks later, fire consumed a home on East Commercial Street. Later that day, a brush fire started on the Touchet River dike behind the city's wastewater treatment plant. Fire seriously damaged and closed down the Columbia County Transfer Station on North Cottonwood Street two days later.

And, most recently, a newly constructed home on Bowman Hill off Lower Hogeye Road, owned by LaRhonda and Daryl McCauley, was destroyed by fire last Wednesday. The couple had been working over the last four years to complete the home and were planning to move in later this fall.

"Our family is devastated by the recent loss of our home," LaRhonda McCauley posted on Facebook the day after the fire. "Daryl and I put four years of blood, sweat, tears, heart and soul into this home. We were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and were excited to be finally moving in... Now all is lost."

Firefighters did keep the surrounding fields of wheat from igniting, but the house was a total loss.

"I'm thankful there was no loss of life and can't say enough about the response from fire districts, volunteers, and neighboring farmers to keep the fire contained," McCauley posted.

Investigators had not yet determined cause on any of the local fires as of press time on Tuesday. Lyonnais said he doesn't know when final reports will be made. Investigators from Walla Walla were called in to assist on the house fires, but they are now tied up with the Blue Creek Fire outside Walla Walla, he said.

Chief Deputy Joe Helm, with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, is handling the criminal investigation on all five fires (see below). He released an official report Monday afternoon with updates. Arson investigation can take weeks, he told The Times, with all the interviews that take place and the collaboration between various agencies.

The sheriff's office must wait for results from each agency's investigation to decide whether the case is criminal in nature for sure, he said. Helm is still treating three of the fires as suspicious.