Fire Does Minor Damage

A brush fire scorched 1.5 acres in Suncrest Monday, putting North Side residents on alert that the fire season has begun.

The evening blaze, on state forestry land, did little more than burn off grounded branches and bushes.

Six engines from Stevens County stations at Twin Mountain, Suncrest, and Tum Tum, and one Department of Natural Resources crew responded. The land, just east of the Suncrest Outpost mall, was sparse forest and scrub brush.

DNR spokesman Cindy Neff-Engen said the fire is a good reminder to have homeowners make their houses fire-ready. Move wood piles away from your homes and mow long grass, she says.

Two teenagers arrested

Police arrested two teenage boys with a BB gun and beer cans after finding broken windows at a Hillyard elementary school.

Police suspect that the 15-year-old and 16-year-old boys broke a glass door and shot out a secondstory window early Sunday morning at Bemiss Elementary, 2315 E. Bridgeport. The windows have been replaced.

Both boys were cited at about 1:30 a.m. for posession of alcohol and were sent to the juvenile jail. The older boy was cited for more serious charges of having a gun on a school campus and malicious mischief.

, DataTimes