inferno engulfs okanogan neighborhood
investigators completed the first phase of gathering evidence at the suspected
point of origin of last week's crestview fire in okan-ogan, but the exact cause
has yet to be pinpointed, says okanogan county sheriff frank rogers.
“we still haven't identified the exact cause of the fire. we've collected
lots of evidence at the scene and sent it to the state crime lab,” rogers
said.
a “person of interest” — a man — has been interviewed, but
no arrests have been made, he said.
the july 16 fire that began shortly before 3 p.m. blackened nearly 350 acres,
damaged three orchards and burned five viewmont area houses to the ground, in
several cases leaving nothing but the foundations, chimneys and ashes.
several other homes were damaged. no injuries were reported.
the fire burned through the viewmont-crestview neighborhood, around the hill along
salmon creek, and up a draw to glover lane. rumors circulated around town about
the cause and possible individuals involved. rogers said investigators have been
checking them out, but so far they've all proven to be false.
“by the time i hit the hill, i heard two different rumors,” rogers said.
he said rumors of a burn barrel or fireworks starting the fire both have been
found to be untrue. “there's nothing at the scene to indicate a burn barrel,”
said rogers.
investigators also haven't found any evidence to substantiate rumors that the
fire may have been caused by some kind of electrical problem or kids playing with
matches, he said. after three days of sifting through evidence at the suspected
point of ignition next to an old building a couple blocks behind the okanogan
junior-senior high school, investigators cleared the crime scene around 8 p.m.
july 18, rogers said. analyzing the evidence is the next step of the investigation,
he said.
“now we start putting it together, going through evidence,” rogers said.
for the county, detectives kreg sloan and mike worden have been working straight
through their days off on the fire investigation, rogers said. even though the
sheriff's office and fire officials confirmed that they've identified a “person
of interest,” rogers said, “that doesn't mean he did it.”
on tuesday, rogers said he doesn't expect to make any arrests until the state
crime lab in olympia completes its analysis of evidence collected at the scene
and reports its findings. as the investigation continues this week, rogers said
what investigators have determined is that the fire did start near an outbuilding
or storage shed just off monroe street. the fire destroyed the building. when
the out-of-town owner of the building was contacted, rogers said, he told detectives
he wasn't even sure what was stored in the building.
the fire that destroyed the unoccupied building identified as the point of ignition
was also a hot one, so investigators have to use screens to sift through ash and
small pieces of evidence, said undersheriff joe somday.
okanogan fire chief gordon hennigs said heavy fuel loads of grass, sagebrush and
juniper trees dried out by weeks of hot, dry summer weather caused the fire to
burn so hot that virtually everything in the houses was reduced to ashes.
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