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Three residents of apartments at 502 S. 2nd Street were displaced due to a fire that was eventually extinguished after a lengthy battle by Fire District No. 3 fire fighters with mutual aid from neighboring agencies.
A stubborn section of the apartment house at 502 S. 2nd Street was eventually tamed thanks to the ladder truck that responded from the City of Walla Walla.
DAYTON–There were no injuries and the residents' pets of a three-unit apartment house at 502 S. 2nd Street were rescued unharmed when fire fighters from Columbia County District No. 3 and mutual aid from neighboring fire agencies eventually brought the stubborn fire under control here Monday.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, said Clint Atteberry, Fire Marshal.
Fire fighters were called at 1:23 p.m. to the residential fire. Fire fighters worked to extinguish the fire in the upper storey of the structure, said Fire District No. 3 Chief Jeromy Phinney.
"The house had been remodeled several times," Phinney said, "so there were several concealed spaces and we couldn't get to them from the top, or the bottom."
Crews eventually got the fire under control by sundown, Phinney said, and a six-person crew remained on scene through the night to ensure against a rekindle.
Phinney said most of the fire damage was in the upper floor and the roof of the single-storey apartment, with smoke and water damage throughout.
Walla Walla-Columbia County District 2, Walla Walla districts 4 and 8, and Garfield County contributed to the effort, Phinney said.
The August heat combined with low numbers of local fire fighters, all working in bunker gear and fighting a difficult fire soon wore out local fire fighters, Phinney said. "It wore everybody out pretty quick," he said.
