A homeowner at 84 Hunters Gate Lane, near Finn Hall Road, came home and discovered heavy smoke and soon thereafter flames going through the roof.

Clallam County Fire Department dispatched at 6:50 p.m. following a 9-1-1 call.

Patrick Young, public information officer, told the Gazette the fire began in the center portion of the single-story home before spreading.

The closest water source was at least two miles away, so water was shuttled in, Young said.

No injuries were reported. Cause of the fire is under investigation.

Young said crews will remain on hand through Friday night and most of Saturday to contain the home.

Fire crews also responded to an external wall fire in Gardiner and a few medical calls Friday evening.

photo by Matthew Nash

Neighbors reported smoke coming from the roof area of the home at 9:41 a.m.

Fire crews found the home full of smoke and flames, which they controlled in 30 minutes.

No one was home or injured but a cat remains missing.

The home sustained heavy smoke and heat damage. It cannot be occupied at this time.

Olympic Ambulance, PUD and the American Red Cross provided assistance.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Photos and information courtesy of Patrick Young

Account and donation sites established to help family

Updated 4:45 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12.

Clallam County Fire District 3 personnel responded to a house fire Monday afternoon at 124 Fitzgerald Road, off House Road near Old Olympic Highway.

Neighbors reported smoke coming out of the home around 12:17 p.m.

Assistant chief Roger Moeder said the house was unoccupied but sustained heavy heat and smoke damage. The cause of the fire appears to be a light-duty extension cord with items on top of it inside the home’s garage.

Fire crews extinguished the fire about 30 minutes later.

Moeder advises people be careful when using extension cords, especially with their heavy use during the holidays.

An account was established for the home’s residents, Brent and Lacey Lovell, at all First Federal branches.

Monetary donations and clothing for their son, in size eight-12 months, can be donated at the Sequim or Carlsborg fire stations or Olympic Ambulance, 550 W. Hendrickson Road.

Brent Lovell is a volunteer firefighter and recent graduate of the firefighter academy with Clallam County Fire District 3. Contact Clallam County Fire District 3, 323 N. Fifth Ave., Sequim, at 683-4242.

Photos from Sequim Gazette

A garage and RV are a total loss after a fire last night on Woodcock Road.

Clallam County Fire District 3 responded to the 3900 block of Woodcock Road for a fully involved garage fire at 10:33 p.m. The first units on scene found fire coming from all openings of the two-car detached garage, Public Information Officer Patrick Young said.

The fire was so intense it began to damage the home located within 30 feet, he said.

The initial fire crews set up fire hoses to protect the home while attacking the flames in the garage, which was extinguished within half an hour, he said.

No injuries were reported and Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the scene as well.

Young said the garage, its contents and an RV parked next to the garage were a total loss. The rental home received minor damage to the rear exterior siding and windows, but the occupants are able to remain living in the home.

Fire crews remained on scene throughout the night to mop up hot spots and an investigation team was on scene at 9 a.m. today to begin searching for a possible cause, Young said.

A final report on the fire will be issued at a later date.

by Sequim Gazette Staff

“I just heard sort of a grinding noise, like someone was dragging a Dumpster across some gravel,” said McCauley, who lives near U.S. Highway 101 where a tanker-truck filled with about 11,300 gallons of fuel collided with another vehicle and plowed down an embankment.

Both drivers unhurt

Alexander B. Krauch, the 17-year-old Sequim motorist involved in the crash, and 58-year-old tanker-truck driver Jackie M. Hart walked away unhurt, though Krauch’s 1999 Subaru Legacy was destroyed when it rolled, coming to rest on its roof.

The truck pulling two tanks lay partially twisted on an embankment much of Thursday until its fuel was drained from the tanks so it could be towed.

No fuel was spilled in the collision, the State Patrol reported.

The crash blocked traffic in both directions for 30 minutes, state troopers reported.

101 reopened for traffic

Highway 101 was reopened to two-way traffic at 8:10 a.m. and was partially closed for alternating traffic shortly after 4 p.m. so the tanker-truck could be towed from the scene.

It was towed and the highway briefly closed during the truck’s removal from the embankment.

The highway was reopened at about 5:15 p.m.

McCauley said the east end of Old Gardiner Road was closed while State Patrol troopers and first responders with Clallam County Fire District No. 3 investigated and cleared the scene.

The State Patrol said Krauch was cited for failing to yield to the oncoming 2004 Freightliner tanker-truck, which was heading westbound on 101 when the teen pulled out in front of it in an attempt to turn left into the highway’s eastbound lane.

Patrick Young, public information officer with Fire District No. 3, said firefighters protected a drainage ditch where the truck came to rest with absorbent material to stop any potential fuel leak from reaching nearby creeks.

Officials from the trucking company were on the scene awaiting the arrival of a transfer pump from Kent and assisted with draining fuel from the double tanker.

McCauley said Gardiner residents have long discussed left-turn dangers on and off U.S. Highway 101.

“The intersection there is unsafe,” he said of Old Gardiner at 101.

In March 2010 just south of 101 and about two miles east of Thursday’s crash scene, a Discovery Bay RV Park resident was killed when her vehicle was struck while she was turning left in the eastbound lane into the park.

Their friend’s death inspired Discovery Bay RV Park residents to raise $30,000 to add an eastbound left-turn lane into the park, which the state Department of Transportation installed last spring.

Gardiner residents have mostly opposed a truck-passing lane Transportation proposed for 101 through Gardiner because of the left-turn dangers they experience, and state traffic engineers nixed the proposal.

Photo by Bob McCauley

Peter Loeb, public information officer with Clallam County Fire District 3, said the woman, Jacqueline Mariott, was hiking with a friend around 7 p.m. when she climbed up a steep slope and felt the wet ground becoming unstable beneath her feet.

It was getting dark and she was 55 feet high on a 75-foot bluff, Loeb said.

Her friend called 9-1-1 and the responding Sheriff’s deputies requested help from the fire district, which arrived with their rescue unit, aid cars, a fire engine and several medics, he said.

“An anchor was set up at the top of bluff,” he said. “Medic/Firefighter Joel Bower, specially trained through Clallam County Fire District 3, provided technical rope rescue to the woman as she clung to him and together they belayed to bottom.”

The rescue concluded at 9:16 p.m. and Mariott, who was unharmed, walked back to the parking lot with her friend.

Assistant Fire Chief Ben Andrews said the training of fire personnel and the teamwork of the Sheriff’s Office made for a properly executed rescue.

by Sequim Gazette staff

Jeremy Columbus died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after he was ejected from his vehicle, said Chief Deputy Ron Cameron with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, with excessive speed in a 35-mph zone and alcohol as factors in the cause, Cameron said.

The late-model Subaru Outback was northbound at about 1:35 a.m. on Sequim-Dungeness Way about a half-mile south of East Anderson Road near Friendly Lane when it swerved left into the southbound lane and rolled off the road onto its side, Cameron said.

Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Ley, who investigated the crash, said Columbus was ejected from the car, which came to rest on its side.

Off-duty volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician Del Caryl, a longtime volunteer who lives nearby, was first on the scene, said Peter Loeb, Clallam County Fire District No. 3 spokesman.

Medics “found [Columbus] unconscious and unresponsive with severe head injuries, so they called [Airlift Northwest],” Loeb said, adding that Columbus was found about 10 feet from the vehicle.

“People saw a baby seat in back of car, and they quickly looked around” but found no other victim, Loeb said.

A black Labrador retriever dog, found at the scene and possibly inside the vehicle in the crash, was uninjured, Cameron said.

Deputies Ley, Ryan Keith and Ken Oien responded to the scene.

Loeb said volunteer Dungeness station paramedics arrived at the site of the crash about six minutes after it was reported.

Columbus was transported by ambulance to the helipad on North Fifth Avenue, where he was picked up and flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The car was destroyed, and it does not appear that the seat belt was in use, the Sheriff’s Office reported.

By Jeff Chew
Peninsula Daily News

A Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. came across the single vehicle rollover accident in an open field at 2:36 a.m. Sgt. John Hollis said it did not appear the accident occurred long before he got there.

The driver, Nathan Ruffcorn, 29, was found trapped inside of the overturned car, Hollis said.

Peter Loeb, public information officer with Clallam County Fire District 3, said units reached the scene at 2:48 a.m. and medics found Ruffcorn conscious but badly injured in the heavily-damaged Honda Accord, which was on its roof 50 feet from the highway.

Emergency crews used “the jaws of life” to pry Ruffcorn out of the car, Loeb said.

Medics weren’t able to stabilize Ruffcorn following the extrication.

“We deeply regret the patient outcome,” Loeb said. “We tried our hardest and will always do so.”
Ruffcorn was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:15 a.m. Medics present at the scene indicated severe head trauma was the leading factor in the cause of death. The incident is under investigation by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Unit.

by Sequim Gazette staff

A house at 133 Jamestown Road caught fire around 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning, Sept. 4.

Peter Loeb, Clallam County Fire Department 3 public information officer, said a clothes dryer is believed to be the cause of the fire.

Carolyn Lindley, the homeowner, and her pets were not harmed. The fire department determined smoke damage made Lindley’s home uninhabitable.

Flames reached upwards of 10 feet and crews used about 200 gallons of water to extinguish flames.

A small team of fire fighters stayed through the afternoon to make sure the fire was out.