Fire Destroys Springdale’s Offices

A suspicious fire destroyed the Springdale, Wash., town hall early Monday, displacing three workers and charring hundreds of public records.

“It burned to the ground,” Town Councilman Mike Pammler said. “It’s totaled.”

The center of government for the community of about 250 people 30 miles north of Spokane was a doublewide trailer on North First Street.

A motorist driving by about 1:15 a.m. spotted the blaze.

The man stopped, called 911 and tried to fight the fire with a garden hose from an adjacent house, Pammler said.

His efforts proved futile. The fire quickly consumed the building, spreading to another city-owned trailer next door. That trailer also was destroyed.

Fire investigators and town officials suspect arson.

When help arrived, the back door to the town hall trailer was open, Pammler said.

Authorities have no suspects and no motive.

Pammler has his own theory.

Springdale is known for raucous politics, and Pammler said he wouldn’t be surprised if the fire was set by one of the council’s critics.

“There are some who are openly hostile,” he said. “They’d have their reasons.”

Officials were still surveying the damage late Monday, hoping some of the town’s more important documents were preserved in a fire-proof safe.

The council purchased the safe after another blaze ravaged town offices in the 1970s, Pammler said.

, DataTimes