Port Angeles: Fire destroys home where deputy slain

PORT ANGELES — The house where a Clallam County Sheriff’s deputy was shot and killed two years ago is a pile of ash today after being destroyed by fire early Friday.

The blaze east of Port Angeles is still under investigation, though officials say fire and water damage to the structure mean they may never know what caused the inferno.

Four people were living in the two-story house at 2009 E. Ennis Creek Road. One woke up and smelled smoke at about 4:30 a.m. Friday.

County Fire District No. 2 firefighters reached the house at 4:41 a.m. and launched a three-hour defensive attack from outside the structure to keep the flames from reaching dry grass, timber and nearby businesses, Battalion Chief Mike Oakes said Saturday.

The risk of a spreading blaze kept firefighters from entering the structure, Oakes said.

The fire destroyed the uninsured house and its contents. No one was injured in the blaze.

Site of shooting

The house was the site of an hours-long standoff Aug. 5, 2000, between law enforcement officers and occupant Thomas Martin Roberts following the shooting death of deputy Wally Davis.

Roberts, 55, will be tried in October in Clallam County Superior Court for aggravated first-degree murder in Davis’ death.

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The rest of this story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.

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