Fires claim Twisp River home, Mazama barn

By John Hanron

A Twisp River home suffered extensive damage when a fire raged through the roof and upper floor late Sunday afternoon (Oct. 11).

Fire Chief Don Waller said fire crews from Twisp and Winthrop were just returning to their stations after dousing a burn pile that had gotten away from a landowner on Twin Lakes Road when the call came in for a fire at the home of Erik and Ingrid Patterson, off Poorman Creek Road. The chief said the ignition source was unclear, but one possible cause was woodstove sparks igniting pine needles on the roof.

 “It’s only a guess. They may have had a chimney fire, but they had a lot of pine needles on the roof. It didn’t show a definite burn pattern.”

Waller said while the home had cedar shingles, they had been treated with fire retardant and were not burning easily. What did exacerbate the fire behavior, however, was a layer of ice-guard membrane under the shingles, as well as the air space in the cold-roof design.

Waller said the ice-guard membrane was “burning like oil,” dripping out of the roof. The air space between the roof deck and the ceiling, designed to ventilate the roof to minimize heating and snowmelt, contributed to the spread of the fire.

“It was a good roof for what it was designed for, but it was not good for fire,” the chief said.

The Pattersons, along with their four children – Morgan, 16; Eirik, 14; Bergen, 10; and Kai, 4 – hastily moved into a small cabin on their property, where they intend to spend the winter. Their small dog survived the fire, but the family cat is still missing.

Erik Patterson said the charred two-story hewn-log structure, which suffered extensive fire, water and smoke damage, will be tarped for the winter, and rebuilding will start in the spring.

“We’ve got a lot of firewood,” he said.

Fire crews were roused from their beds early Tuesday morning (Oct. 13) to respond to another structure fire, this one on Grizzly Mountain Road south of Mazama.

Waller said a hay barn – empty of hay but filled with lumber, snowmobiles, snowblowers and chickens – caught fire at about 3:30 a.m. at the home of Linda and Rick Mills.

By the time fire crews arrived at the scene, the covered shelter was on the ground.

Waller said a heat lamp set up for the chickens was the suspected cause of the blaze, which did not spread to any other buildings on the Mills property.

October is National Fire Prevention Month. Waller reminds all residents to make sure their chimneys are clean, their roofs are free of woody debris and that any heat tape or heat lamps are installed safely.

Photo by John Hanron

Twisp firefighter Scotty Dodge takes a breather from working the house fire near Poorman Creek Road Sunday as homeowner Ingrid Patterson takes a load of clothes from her burning home. Firefighters were able to save some furniture and belongings from the ground floor as the fire raged in the roof.