A shed, a vehicle and a tent camp trailer were destroyed in a fire near the intersection of Moon Road Southwest and U.S. Highway 12 in South Thurston County on Monday.
No injuries were reported.
Crews with the West Thurston Regional Fire Authority were dispatched to the fire, which was reported as a vehicle fire, at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 5.
“It got upgraded to a residential structure fire because they found a 20-by-48 shop with heavy fire, and the shop also had a tent camp trailer right next to it. It was also torching off some fir trees,” West Thurston Fire Chief Rob Smith said.
After ensuring that everyone had been evacuated from the area, West Thurston crews and mutual aid partners East Olympia Fire District 6, McLane Black Lake Fire Department, South Thurston Fire, Grays Harbor Fire District 1 and the Riverside Fire Authority began fighting the fire.
“By the time we arrived, it was an advanced fire, and we weren’t going to be able to save the structures that were currently on fire,” Smith said.
Crews took a defensive posture to prevent the fire from spreading to other nearby trailers and vehicles, knocking down the main body of the fire within about half an hour, according to Smith.
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene “because there was a minor altercation involving (an) estimated 50 to 60 people who were on the scene,” Smith said. “Once law enforcement arrived, they were able to secure the scene for us to pretty much finish our job.”
Due to “some potential hazmat exposures” in the shop, fire crews were unable to determine an origin or cause for the fire, Smith said.
Crews cleared the scene at about 8:30 p.m. on Monday, but returned at about 9 p.m. for reports that the fire was smoldering. That secondary mop up took about half an hour, Smith said.
