Saturday, November 24, 2007

Building burns



The DSHS (Dept of Social and Health Services) building burned on Friday. It looks to be completely gone. You can see through the building - what is left of it - to the other side. It was probably empty of people, thankfully, because of the Thanksgiving holiday. It went up quickly. Located near the center of town, and across the street from the hospital, it received a lot of attention from the firefighters. The first sign we had was when the power went out - as if a switch was thrown. We could see the great column of smoke from our house. The DSHS building is next to the PUD (Public Utility District) warehouse. Only part of the town lost power, and it came back fairly soon - meanwhile, we had breakfast out.
In a small town, a building burning like this is rare, since there are so few commercial buildings.
Fire is especially feared here, since we are surrounded by forest, and downtown is compact .
These smaller pictures are of a couple of the engines that responded, and a piece of the blackened frame - what little is left. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.



2 comments:

Wayne said...

Dramatic photos. Sad events. Glad that you are not having to report that it spread to the forests. Glad to hear nobody got hurt.
Thanks,
Wayne

Forks and Forest said...

An update - the paper this morning said that there wasn't anyone there, and it was discovered by someone walking by.