News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
Fire engines from Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee, Okanogan County Fire District 2 and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation line road to address the house fire at 1107 River Drive Jan. 10. - Scott Hunter photos
Seen from the street, a firefighter looks for fire in the ceiling above him in a bedroom adjacent to one on fire at the back of the house spewing smoke (at left), as the crown of the roof glows above him outside.
Officer Josh Watkins, right, talks with police Chief Paul Bowden at the fire scene.
A police officer couldn't wait for the fire department to evacuate a woman inside a home that was burning in Coulee Dam last week.
Officer Josh Watkins went back to the home he'd visited a few minutes before for an unrelated matter after the dispatch center in Moses Lake told him a bedroom in the house at 1107 River Drive was now on fire.
It was 5:23 p.m.
Watkins arrived and saw large flames coming out of the bedroom at the northeast corner of the house. Young people he'd just spoken with were now in the driveway with pets on leashes. They called to him to let him know a woman in a wheelchair was in the basement and needed help to get out.
"Being I was the only one on-scene and saw the size of the flames and saw the flames rapidly growing, I did not have time to wait for the Fire Department to come evacuate the woman in the basement," Watkins wrote in his report, documenting his decision-making process. "I made the decision to enter the basement alone to evacuate the woman."
Watkins went in through the garage, where smoke was already thick from the fire burning a floor above. It got heavier as he went inside calling to her to try to find her. Then he heard her in another room and found his way to her.
She wanted to get her shoes, but Watkins told her there was no time and began backing her out of building through multiple doorways, "and eventually successfully evacuated her from the residence," he wrote.
The three juveniles told Watkins they'd smelled smoke, discovered the fire and tried to douse it with water and blankets with no luck, then called 911.
Holly Boles bought the house just before the covid emergency hit with the intention of hiring contractors to fix it up. She ended up doing a lot of work herself and four years later had just changed jobs, hoping to slow down a little, she said Tuesday, working at the Eagles Aerie in Grand Coulee.
Four people were living in the house, which suffered extensive damage at one end, and smoke damage throughout. Boles and longtime friend Pamela McDonald, the woman in the wheelchair, plus several dogs, are staying with Boles' mother nearby temporarily. She said she's having a hard time finding a place to live. The other two occupants, Boles' 16-year-old son, and an older son are living in other homes, she said.
She's meeting with a fire inspector later this week, working with her insurance company, and not completely grasping what she's going to need to do, she said. All their personal belongings are ruined.
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