Manson, WA – Fire raged through the maintenance building at Wapato Point this morning, leaving the structure in a state of total devastation.

At approximately 9:00 AM today, Randy Reed of Reed’s Marine saw smoke coming from the structure.  He entered the building, got the people out and called in the fire to 911. Within minutes the fire, sheriff and EMT personnel were on the scene.

For over three hours firefighters fought the blaze with hoses and a ladder truck equipped with a remote control nozzle that quenched the fire from above the building. Firefighters entered the rear of the building and made their way inside to remove oxyacetylene tanks and other potentially dangerous items.

At one point the flames reached higher than the top of the extended fire truck ladder.

The EMT crews were standing by in case of accidents and kept the firefighters fed and hydrated. The Chelan County Sheriffs made sure that the streets were blocked from through traffic and the crowd stayed a safe distance. People gathered in the Manson Bay Market parking lot to watch.

Firefighter Tim Cook was returning from a false alarm in Chelan when he saw the smoke. “I just got back to the station and had to head right back out.”

Using a thermal imaging camera, firefighters located a hot spot in the northeast side of the building and proceeded to cut a door-sized hole through the metal siding in order to extinguish a hidden blaze.  According to Fire Chief Arnold Baker, this is part of the ‘overhaul stage’ where a seek-and-destroy type of mission is carried out.  This must be done because a fire can easily restart and that would be dangerous for fire inspectors and other personnel.

As the steam and smoke began to clear one could see that half of the roof had disintegrated, exposing a black pile of roof beams and unidentifiable charcoal.  The clear blue sky, full of sunshine, provided sharp contrast to the smoldering structure.

		Wapato Point Fire