Fire burns garage, house saved

Their house didn't burn, but firefighters couldn't save the garage/shop at Bill and Heather Williams' home in Electric City Monday when fire cut short their plans to work on an old pickup.

Searching for the bright side as firefighters sprayed down the charred wood and hot metal siding, Heather Williams said at least they wouldn't have to decide what to keep from a collection of belongings they'd moved into the garage to sort.

Electric City Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mark Payne said Bill Williams had cut bolts off an old Studebaker pickup to remove its bed, then went inside to eat lunch. When they came back to work on the truck, they found the fire and tried to put it out with extinguishers.

The call went out for firefighters to respond to 70 Goodfellow Street at 3:25 p.m., Payne said.

The pole building with metal siding and roof burned hot enough to melt lights on a trailer nearby and a tarp next door.

An upstairs guestroom at the back of the structure was saved but suffered heavy smoke damage. It was not occupied. No one was hurt in the fire.

Payne noted the presence of ammunition stored in the structure, plus oxygen/acetylene gas cylinders, added fuel and danger.

Sitting on the bed of the Studebaker they'd managed to tow across the street (luckily it was already hooked up to tow, Heather said), the Williams couple watched firefighters knock down hotspots in the garage, the tomatoes in their raised garden blackened.

Heather Williams speculated she might still save the cucumber vine, but not much else looked salvageable.

Payne thanked mutual aid partners for the help, including the Grand Coulee Volunteer Fire Department, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Fire Department and "the citizens who were there before us" trying to put the fire out with extinguishers and hoses.