Area agencies credited with preventing downtown disaster

By JESSE BURKHARDT
White Salmon Enterprise

In a dramatic and disheartening blow to the downtown area of White Salmon, an art gallery and photography studio went up in flames Wednesday evening despite the brave efforts of about 75 firefighters from seven area fire departments.

The fire, at 141 E. Jewett, was reported at about 7:15 p.m., and quickly enveloped the building.

“Within a few minutes of arriving, the front window of the building turned black and was cracking,” said White Salmon firefighter Jeff Bruce.

In the end, the century-old building was a total loss, along with the two businesses within: Roz Gallery and Blue Ackerman Photography Studio.

Although saving the gallery quickly became a lost cause, firefighters worked effectively to make sure the two buildings on either side of the Roz Gallery — Everybody’s Brewing and Artisan’s Jewelers — did not go up in flames as well. Good fire walls helped.

White Salmon Fire Department Safety Officer Greg Holtman said firefighters worked hard to keep the fire from spreading to adjacent buildings.

“We’re lucky we didn’t lose the apartments in back of Artisan’s,” he said. “Hood River used their ladder truck to put water on the roofs of the buildings and at the back.”

White Salmon firefighters attacked the fire primarily from the front of the building.

“Our intent was to push everything back,” Holtman explained.

He said that when he arrived, he quickly called for evacuations of nearby buildings — starting with Everybody’s Brewing, a tavern next door to the burning building.

“I went in there and said, ‘You have two minutes to evacuate,’” Holtman said.

Firefighters were working from five fire hydrants, and Holtman estimated the crews were pouring as much as 6,000 gallons a minute onto the burning building.

“We started losing pressure at one point,” he said, “but we never ran out of water.”

Holtman said the firefighters on the scene were from several fire departments around the area, including White Salmon, Bingen, Husum, Cherry Lane, Underwood, High Prairie and Hood River.

Firefighters battled the fire until about 3:30 a.m.

“All the crews worked together,” he said. “We had a full night.”

“It’s really devastating,” said John Roz, manager of the gallery.

Roz has been featuring artwork from a variety of painters, sculptors, and other artists, whose work was on consignment in the building. All of the art on display was destroyed.

Ackerman, a professional photographer, lost most of her images in the blaze, as well as her lighting equipment.

Although the owner had insurance on the building, Roz and Ackerman said none of the contents of the building were insured.

“It was impossible to insure,” Roz added. “I had insurance companies walk out after being in the building. We used to joke it was a fire trap.”

Ackerman said she knew the firefighters did all they could to save the building.

“I want to thank them for all their help and all they did,” she said.

Jay Holtmann, the incident commander at the scene, praised the cooperation from local agencies.

“It was great cooperation and teamwork,” he said. “I want to offer a big thanks to all the local fire departments for responding. It was a great team effort.”

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, with a fire investigator from Vancouver scheduled to come in Friday to inspect the charred building.

White Salmon Mayor David Poucher praised the fire department for its superlative work in controlling the fire.

“Our fire department acted very, very well, and bringing in Hood River’s ladder truck for mutual aid was excellent,” Poucher said. “Plus, all the other departments showed up and literally saved our bacon.”

However, Poucher was angry that some water customers have been overusing water at a time the city has called on everyone to conserve.

“We started the day a little low on water,” Poucher explained. “Our reservoirs were at approximately 75-80 percent full. We like to have that at around 95-100 percent. These people who insist on a green lawn when we have a water source problem are putting the entire city in jeopardy.

“The ones using 50,000-100,000 gallons a month to water grass — we have about 20 of them — where is their sense of community? They have a green lawn, but we don’t have water to fight a fire. Give me a stinking break.”

Poucher promised that fines would be forthcoming for those who are not conserving.

“At one time we weren’t sure the fire department would be able to control it,” Poucher added. “If we’d gotten another fire going, oh my gosh. If it had spread and gone into the brewery, it could have taken out the entire block.”

Poucher pointed out that Buck Creek is not currently an option as a backup water source.

“We couldn’t even take Buck Creek water now because the slow sand filter is being built where the old line used to be,” he said.

Artisan’s suffered some smoke damage but came out relatively unscathed. The jewelry business will need to have its carpets professionally cleaned, and the owner also plan to repaint the interior.

Everybody’s was closed all day on Thursday, mainly to air out the building.

Roz said he would do what he could to try to compensate artists who had their work on consignment.