Photo by George Kunke - A fire destroyed a house on Weaver Avenue in Raymond early Thursday morning displacing a family of five.
A devastatingly intense fire completely destroyed a house located at 435 Weaver Avenue in Raymond causing a family of five to completely relocate early Thursday morning. There were no injuries, perhaps because a 14-year-old living there was awake when the fire started.
Sarah Martin, who lived in the residence with her husband, two daughters and her brother, lost virtually all of their possessions, are now looking for a place to live.
"We were lucky she (daughter Kaitlyn, 14) was awake or it could have been a lot worse," Martin told the Herald at the fire scene Saturday afternoon. "She saved 'em."
Kaitlyn smelled smoke, and alerted her dad, Steven Brown, that something was burning. At that point the fire was small and in the breaker box. According to Sarah, he attempted to put the fire out when it ignited. The four people in the house at the time, and their two pets immediately escaped from the burning house. Sarah was at work in Elma at the time. Also in the house were Sarah's younger daughter, age 9, and Sarah's brother.
"A lot of people in the community are helping us out," Sarah said. "We are looking for a place to live, hopefully, we're gonna try to stay in Raymond."
The local Red Cross is helping the five people who are currently staying at the Golden Lion Inn in Raymond. Anyone who would care to contribute to their cause can do so at the Bank of the Pacific in Raymond, 560 Commercial St., or at Facebook Pay.
The owner of the house, Dr. Stephen Holland, told the Herald Monday morning, "We were out of town when we heard about the fire and the insurance adjuster has not yet assessed anything about the incident. Some employees of the district have stepped forward to help the family."
"The home was a total loss," Pacific County Fire District 3 Fire Chief Gary Schwiesow told the Herald.
Chief Schwiesow described the fire situation in detail.
"We had a fully involved structure fire at 435 Weaver Street," Schwiesow said. "We got the first call at 5:00 (am), adding that firefighters in the "first engine could see flames when they went across the South Fork bridge.
"Upon arrival we had the fire venting through the back peak of the structure and was burning hot and moving towards the front of the home," Schwiesow continued. "We had to start off right away attacking the fire defensively. This fire was hard to fight due to the fact that we couldn't enter the building because of the potential of roof collapse. Also the power line had burned off from the house, so we had a hazardous situation to be very careful of until the Pacific County PUD got on scene. There was a neighboring home to the west that we had to protect."
According to Schwiesow, "There were a total of 19 firefighters on the scene." Responding to the fire were the Pacific County Fire District with two engines and one command vehicle, the South Bend Fire Department with two engines and four firefighters, and the Raymond Fire Department with one engine and one command vehicle,
"The fire was knocked down within 30 minutes of arrival," Schwiesow said. "The investigation of how the fire started is being handled by the Pacific County Sheriff's Office.
"I would like to say a big thanks to South Bend Fire, Raymond Fire, Pacific County 911 Dispatch. Pacific County Sheriff's officers, and to all our firefighters," Schweihow added.