PORT ANGELES — Clallam County sheriff’s deputies are investigating a fire on Lower Elwha Road as an arson.
No one was injured in the early Sunday morning blaze, but five storage units were destroyed, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office.
Port Angeles police officers and Clallam County Fire District 2 firefighters responded to the fire at about 4 a.m. Sunday in the 600 block of Lower Elwha Road about a mile northwest of the Extreme Sports Park.
They arrived to find five storage units engulfed in flames with explosions from compressed gas cylinders within the units and the fire threatening to spread to the surrounding woodlands.
Evidence of arson was found while fighting the fire, the sheriff’s office said.
About an hour after the fire was contained, a team of arson investigators from Fire District 3 and the Port Angeles Police Department were given permission by the property owner to search the scene and collect evidence for analysis, the sheriff’s office said.
The case remains under investigation. Anyone with information can contact the sheriff’s office at 360-417-2262.
Personnel from Fire District 2 (Port Angeles), Fire District 4 (Joyce), the sheriff’s office, the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribal Police, Olympic Ambulance and Port Angeles Fire Department responded with 29 firefighters, four engines, two tenders, three command vehicles and one squad vehicle.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at brian.gawley@sound publishing.com.
