SEQUIM — A fire in the porch of an unoccupied mobile home prompted the closure of a portion of Old Olympic Highway for about 90 minutes Saturday.
Clallam County Fire District 3 crews managed to save the interior of the structure at 3401 Old Olympic Highway after a passer-by reported the blaze at about 4:45 p.m., said Lt. Bob Rhoads, district public information officer.
No injuries were reported, he said, and two dogs belonging to the owner, Josh Millar, were unharmed.
Highway reopened
The highway was opened at about 5:15 p.m.
Upon arrival, the 24 fire fighters found the front porch and entry to the mobile home ablaze, with heavy smoke coming from the crawl space under the house.
“The fire was knocked down and progress stopped within the first five minutes of suppression activities,” Rhoads said in a prepared statement, but completely extinguishing the fire took more than an hour because of the difficulty of accessing the crawl space.
The highway was closed because of the amount of equipment — which included four fire engines, two water tenders and a medic unit.
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PORT ANGELES — Two fires caused by fireworks, one ignited by a Roman candle, were quickly extinguished Saturday, said Clallam County District 2 Chief Jon Bugher.
No one was hurt, and no structures were damaged, he said.
The wrapper of a Roman candle — or a device like one, which spits out flaming, colored balls — was found at a fire about 4.2 miles south on Deer Park Road that started at about 7:45 p.m., Bugher said.
“It burned only blackberries and pasture land,” he said, and had blackened an area of about 40-feet-by-50 feet by the time the eight fire fighters put it out, which took about 10 minutes.
Earlier in the day, a fire that broke out mid-to-late morning burned brush on both sides of the Lower Elwha Road, Bugher said.
Residents attempted to put it out with garden hoses, but fire fighters were needed to finish the job.
“It was quickly contained,” he said.
He did not know what fireworks caused that blaze.
Roman candles are not considered “safe and sane” fireworks — meaning those that do not fly or explode, including sparklers, wheels, smoke and snake items and strobes.
“We remind people that any kind of fireworks in natural vegetation is extremely dangerous,” Bugher said.
“They need to go to a pavement area to set off their fireworks to protect their own property and their neighbor’s property.”
Personal fireworks may be discharged in the unincorporated areas of both Clallam and Jefferson counties, and in Sequim, from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. today.
They also may be discharged in Forks today, until about 10 p.m.
They are not permitted at all today in Port Angeles.
They were banned for the entire Independence Day weekend in Port Townsend.
