Sunday Blaze Left Washougal Building A Total Loss

Oct. 22--WASHOUGAL -- Holding a pitchfork, Mark Evans stepped onto the soggy layer of ash caked on the floor of what was once his friend's business.

"It's not good when you're cleaning your friend's place with a pitchfork and rubber boots," he said, standing in the charred building with a partly collapsed tin roof.

The business, owned by Wanda Walker, offers a massagelike technique called Bowenwork. It was one of two businesses at 921 Fourth St. gutted after a pile of rags spontaneously combusted early Sunday morning and set the building ablaze. Riverside Laundry was also destroyed.

Two other businesses, Racers Division and Mike's Tire and Auto, sustained less damage, but the Clark County Fire Marshal said the entire building was structurally unsound and declared it a total loss with $150,000 worth of damage.

On Monday, the businesses' owners dealt with the aftermath.

"All the roof trusses burnt to a crisp," said Jared Cooper, owner and founder of Racers Division.

When the ceiling collapsed, some pieces of drywall fell on customers' cars, causing minor roof dents and scratched paint, but most damage to his business was from smoke.

"For the most part, we got very lucky," he said.

In the near future, a company in Portland called Xcessive Manufacturing is lending a hand by allowing Racers Division to store its customers' cars in its shop at 7700 S.W 69th Ave., Cooper said. Xcessive is also allowing Cooper and his wife to temporarily work on the cars and run their business out of the shop.

"My long-term plan is to buy a property and not have a scenario where I have connected neighbors ever again," Cooper said.

Cooper moved Racers Division into the building three years ago and runs it with his wife, who is a mechanic for the business. He estimated about $50,000 in damage from the fire.

"All of us are having a pretty hard time," he said.

On Monday, Evans spent hours sifting through the fire debris with his pitchfork. He said Walker didn't have many valuables inside, but he recovered some of memorable objects, including framed certificates, a wooden carousel horse and shelves.

Walker said that the fire brought out the best in her neighbors and friends.

"I can't feel too bad for myself, because I found out how many true, true friends I have."

After working in the building for nine years, Walker said her business shouldn't be affected because her clients can get Bowenwork done anywhere. Bowenwork is a "system of touch that initiates a series of responses through stimulation of the nervous, musculoskeletal, fascial and energetic systems of the human body," according to the American Bowen Academy.

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"I saw clients in my house today," she said on Monday.

Walker said she will have to spend a few thousand dollars to replace equipment; she did not have renter's insurance.

Spontaneous combustion

On Sunday, the fire marshal's office blamed the blaze on a pile of rags that spontaneously combusted. When soaked with certain chemicals, piles of rags trap heat to a level that can cause an ignition, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. An average of 1,700 homes per year catch fire because of spontaneous combustion from chemical-soaked rags.

Riverside Laundry, which was the source of the fire on Sunday, was also the site of a minor attic fire in June.

Kevin Bergstrom, deputy fire marshal for the Camas-Washougal Fire Marshal's Office, said the June fire was investigated by a few private companies on behalf of insurance companies. Investigators determined the fire to likely be caused by driers installed improperly, prior to the current tenant, he said.

A man who identified himself as the owner of the burned building, listed as Steven Buck in county property records, refused to give a comment to The Columbian on Monday.

Mike Miller, the owner of Riverside Laundry, told The Columbian that he did not want to comment, and the owner of Mike's Tire and Auto could not be reached.

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