PORT ANGELES — The owner of a burned home will soon begin removing debris that has prolonged the closure of the Port Angeles Waterfront Trail, city officials said.
The trail has been closed west of Francis Street Park since April 5, when the house at 715 Caroline St. was destroyed.
A 10-to-15-foot section of the bluff collapsed due to water runoff from firefighters’ hoses, spilling mud and brush onto the trail below.
Wreckage from the house and a bulkhead on the property must be removed before crews can safely work on the trail, city Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat said.
“There are a lot of moving parts,” Delikat said.
“We are working with (the homeowner) to have it done before the marathon.”
City officials originally had hoped to reopen the trail last month.
Discovery marathon
The North Olympic Discovery Marathon is scheduled for June 5.
The marathon, half marathon, 10K and 5K routes use the waterfront trail, which is also part of the Olympic Discovery Trail.
“The city has been working very closely with the owner of the property,” Public Works Director Craig Fulton said Friday.
He added that removal of house debris was expected to begin this week.
“That’s critical, because we cannot begin clean the bottom of the slope until the top of slope is safe,” Fulton said.
The home owner, Judy Galgano, has made arrangements with a contractor to remove the rubble by May 20, Fulton said.
“Funding is always an issue, but she’s been working hard,” Fulton said.
“It appears everything is coming together for the removal to begin next week,” he said Friday.
Once the parks department gets the green light, crews should have the debris off the trail in less than a day, Delikat has said.
Let it burn
Firefighters had to let the two-story wooden home burn after city engineers said that the amount of water needed to extinguish the blaze would weaken further an already eroding bluff that had poured soil and trees onto the Waterfront Trail below.
Built in 1900, the house on the bluff was valued at $145,778 last year, according to the Clallam County Assessor’s Office.
Galgano, 83, had moved into the house in 1956.
Fire Chief Ken Dubuc has said the cause of the fire was not known, but Galgano told firefighters she had left a fire in a wood stove while she was on an errand on the day the house burned.
A home at 713 Caroline Street also was threatened by the sliding bluff on the day of the fire.
City officials have recommended that the property owner have an engineer inspect the property.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
