PORT ANGELES – A fire in an outbuilding was a total loss Friday morning on the 3500 block of East Bay Street in Gales Addition.
Clallam 2 Fire Rescue was dispatched at about 3:15am after the resident reported flames coming from an outbuilding on the property, adding that it was starting to spread into the surround grass and bushes.
Firefighters arrived to find the structure fully engulfed in flames. Fortunately, no one was inside the building, but there was a travel trailer nearby and the fire was spreading into a wooded area.
With help of the Port Angeles Fire Department, crews were able to extinguish the fire by 4:00am.
Investigators learned that a generator had been running in the outbuilding to supply power to the travel trailer. The occupant reports hearing the generator running abnormally, went to check on it and discovered fire around the generator. They say they tried to put the fire out themselves, but it grew out of control, so they called 911.
We asked Clallam 2 Fire Chief Jake Patterson if there was a lesson to be learned in all this.
“There was a bunch of combustible material in there, plus we don’t advise operating a gas-powered generator inside any structure. They need to be well ventilated and have a lot of space around them.”
The resident told firefighters the 10-by-20-foot cedar building used to be a storage building for the old Loomis Tavern before it was moved to the property.
(Clallam 2 Fire Rescue photo)