Burning questions remain about restaurant fire
Silver Dollar Cafe owners seek answers in wake of Friday’s fire
by Melissa Sánchez, Yakima Herald-Republic, Aug. 24, 2009 [here]
MOXEE, Wash. — Rick and Martha Lounsbury aren’t looking to blame anybody for Friday’s fire, but they have two unanswered questions.
Why didn’t any of the half-dozen firefighters eating inside their Silver Dollar Cafe minutes before it burned down tell them it was at risk?
What agency calls the shots when multiple crews are on a wildfire that’s sweeping through this so-called “no-man’s land”?
Late Sunday afternoon, the Lounsburys trudged around the charred remains of the decades-old diner on State Route 24 they bought last December.
A massive wildfire [the Dry Creek Complex here] sparked by lightning Thursday night destroyed the iconic burger-and-shake joint that had served as a gathering place for this small, rural community outside Moxee. …
Lightning in this area late Thursday started two major fires in federal and private lands north of Sunnyside to the Columbia River, straddling state routes 241 and 24. The cafe sits at that intersection.
Starting Thursday, nearby residents helped each other put out flames in the brush and grass in this area about 30 miles east of Yakima. They borrowed farmers’ water trucks and watched each other’s property.
This barren stretch of State Route 24 is considered no-man’s land and falls under no fire district’s responsibility, officials from multiple agencies said Sunday.
Residents in this eastern part of Yakima County do not pay for fire protection, said Michael Reil, deputy chief of Yakima Fire District No. 4, which covers much of Terrace Heights and eastern Yakima County.
Dale Warriner, who is spokesman for the multiagency team in charge of fire management, said, “That restaurant or cafe was not in any fire precinct or district, so I guess nobody technically had responsibility for it.”
The fire moved fast throughout the area and crews from the state’s Department of Natural Resources, Richland, Walla Walla and Hanford were fighting different parts of it. At its peak, the fire would cover some 40,000 acres — although about 80 percent had been contained by Sunday evening and both state roads had been reopened.
And on Friday afternoon there were about a dozen firefighters from various agencies inside the Silver Dollar, which is something like an oasis for folks passing through or residents themselves. At least six firefighters had ordered burgers, said Martha Lounsbury, who remembers the number because she was flipping the patties at the time.
She could see smoke from beyond the hills around her property, but no flames in the minutes before the fire began around 6:30 p.m.
“I just kept watching the smoke but didn’t feel threatened at all. There were firefighters inside. If they’d just have even said the wind was moving closer …” she trailed off. “I don’t know.”
Her husband was on his way back to the diner with his daughter in a borrowed water truck when he saw the flames. But firefighters on State Route 24 didn’t let him through, he said.
“I don’t blame the firefighters, but I blame the mismanagement of superiors,” said Rick Lounsbury, who works in cement mixing. “If it’s a no-man’s land, why wouldn’t they let me in with the water truck to fight the fire?” … [more]