In brief: Cusick man dies in single-car crash near Colville
A Cusick, Washington, man died in a single-car crash Saturday morning about 22 miles east of Colville, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Andrew J. Rose, 32, was driving his 2001 Chevy Blazer east on state Highway 20 just before 8 a.m. The Blazer left the road to the right for an unknown reason and rolled. Rose was ejected and died at the scene.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, WSP said in a news release.
Fast-growing fire doused outside Sprague
A fire was reported near the town of Sprague in Lincoln County on Saturday afternoon, growing to 1,600 acres, but it was quickly doused.
The fire started just after 4 p.m. next to the eastbound Interstate 90 on-ramp in Sprague, said Lincoln County Fire District 1 firefighter Kyle Cordill. Winds pushed the blaze away from town, burning grass and sagebrush.
“Nobody in Sprague was harmed,” Cordill said. “The wind was blowing to the east.”
Crews from Whitman County, Adams County, Edwall, the Bureau of Land Management and Spokane County Fire District 3 assisted with the fire along with several air tankers.
“The fire’s all out, contained,” Cordill said late Saturday. Eighty percent of the burned land belongs to BLM, so it will monitor the area, Cordill said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
DNR: Long Lake fire half contained
The fire south of Long Lake in northwestern Spokane County was kept in check by firefighters Saturday after it grew rapidly Friday evening and put up a towering plume of smoke.
The fire, north of Long Lake Road, has been mapped at 430 acres, said Guy Gifford, Department of Natural Resources spokesman. The goal Saturday was to keep the fire from growing, and that goal appears to have been met, he said.
“Everything went well today,” he said. “Everything so far has held.”
Firefighters have a trail around the entire fire and it was considered 50 percent contained as of early Saturday evening. The Spokane River and several irrigated fields helped stop the fast-moving fire Friday. “We had several advantages,” Gifford said.
Long Lake Road is back open, but people are urged to drive slowly.
Police search for robber who held up shoe store
Spokane police are investigating an armed robbery at Payless Shoes in Shadle Center about 4 p.m. Saturday.
The robber entered the store, 2401 W. Wellesley Ave., showed a handgun and threatened the clerk, according to police.
The man is described as white, about 50 years old, skinny and with a trimmed beard. He was reportedly wearing a gray baseball cap.
No other clothing description is available because the numerous witnesses that saw the man run out of the store gave conflicting information on what color clothing he was wearing, Cpl. Jordan Ferguson said. “They could agree on the cap,” he said.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.
Man attacked by bear at Lewis-McChord base
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – A man was attacked by a bear at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, suffering minor injuries.
The attack happened about 8:30 a.m. Saturday on the base near Tacoma, KOMO-TV reported. Officials said the man, a civilian, was attacked while walking in a restricted area. He sustained only scratches.
Officials are now looking into why the man was there. They’re also looking for the animal that attacked him.
Bears are common in the area. In April, Washington wildlife agents shot and killed a black bear at the base, a week after a bear attacked a civilian base employee. That employee, who was attacked while he was running with his dog on the base, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Red flag warning posted for Glacier area
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Mont. – A red flag warning was posted Saturday for much of northwest Montana, including Glacier National Park, where firefighters are battling a wildfire.
The fire in Glacier had burned about 5 square miles about 4 miles west of the St. Mary Visitor Center. Crews contained about 65 percent of the fire, which was reported July 21.
The fire has led to the closure of an 18-mile section of the scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road in the park.
The evacuation of Going-to-the-Sun Road and nearby campgrounds when the fire was first reported went fairly well, Kyle Johnson, a wilderness specialist in the park, told the Great Falls Tribune.
One reason is that dozens of visitors could see smoke from the Reynolds Creek fire.
Contacting hikers who were in the backcountry at the time took hard hiking by park personnel, and occasionally some motivating, Johnson said.
Those hikers were spread across four large drainages. Some didn’t know about the fire. Others had seen the smoke, but didn’t know the danger they might be walking into.
“We just kind of pulled a plan together and went out and got it done,” Johnson said.
Miss Tri-Cities 2015 to be stripped of crown
KENNEWICK, Wash. – The reigning Miss Tri-Cities will be stripped of her crown after pageant organizers learned she pleaded guilty this year to a misdemeanor theft charge.
Maeloni Ogle, 21, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $250 worth of clothes from a Macy’s store at a Kennewick mall, the Tri-City Herald reported. She received a deferred sentence.
The Miss Tri-Cities executive director, Dot Stewart, learned about the shoplifting incident Friday from the newspaper. She said Ogle will lose her title, $12,000 in scholarship money and other prizes.
Ogle is in violation of the contract she signed, which asked if she had been convicted or charged with a crime, Stewart said. She signed, leading organizers to believe she had no criminal history.
Ogle could not be reached for comment Friday.
She was chosen in July to become Miss Tri-Cities 2015 and was to compete in the 2016 Miss Washington pageant.