Scott Swanson
Fire destroyed a 5th Avenue residential shop next door to Oak Heights Elementary Friday afternoon, April 10.
Sweet Home firefighters responded to a report of the fire at 465 5th Ave. at 4:10 p.m. and found a 30-foot by 40-foot shop fully involved. Nearby trees also were burning.
The fire threatened the nearby school, said Battalion Chief Shannon Pettner. One occupant at Oak Heights escaped unharmed as smoke and fire, driven by the wind, blew toward the school.
Neighbor Joan Riemer said her husband Elmer was pressure washing the driveway when he heard a noise and saw “lots of gray and black smoke.”
“He yelled at me and I came out the door and right about that time the back side of the shed blew up,” Joan Riemer said. “It scared me to death.”
Her daughter’s house is adjacent to the burning shed and since she wasn’t home, Riemer grabbed her keys and phone and hustled down 5th Avenue to get some water on her daughter’s greenhouse, which, Riemer feared, might be damaged by sparks.
“I got halfway down the street and a real big blast came. Those first two that blew were pretty bad.”
She made it into her daughter’s yard on Elm Street and volunteer firefighter Ron Sipe “came running down the hill, he and Dale Miner,” and helped her get a hose going on the greenhouse.
“We watched from the back yard,” Rimer said. “It was just horrifying, but it was incredible to watch the firemen.”
The cause of the fire was unintentional, Pettner said. It was linked to an occupant welding in an area with flammable materials nearby. Investigators believe the fire caused the explosion of multiple tires, propane tanks and other gas tanks, Pettner said. Multiple 60-foot fir trees were torched by the blaze.
Twenty-two Sweet Home firefighters responded to the fire. A second alarm was requested, brining units from Lebanon, Brownsville, and Halsey.
A second alarm was canceled before those units arrived, as Sweet Home firefighters brought the fire under control.
Oregon Department of Forestry units also responded to the scene and extinguished a fire in a bark dust pile, started by embers from the shop fire, at Oak Heights.
The shop and its contents were a total loss. No other structures sustained any damage. No injuries were reported.
The property is owned by Anna Townsend. Zachariah Davis is the occupant.