Fire near Clayton destroys rental home

A fire burning between Clayton and Loon Lake, Washington, shut down Highway 395 for several hours Wednesday afternoon before the highway reopened around 6 p.m.

The fire began in a home on Stephenson Road just off the highway shortly after 2 p.m. The home was a recently vacated rental and the owner was doing some repairs, said Stevens County Fire District 1 Fire Chief Mike Bucy.

“He was using a torch,” Bucy said. The owner waited 40 minutes to watch for signs of a fire after using the torch, and when he didn’t see any he left and went to his residence next door. Shortly thereafter, he smelled smoke and spotted the fire, Bucy said.

“There must have been a spark or excess heat that he didn’t notice,” he said.

One firefighter was treated on the scene for a heat issue, Bucy said.

The fire, which destroyed the home, spread to nearby grass and timber. The flames jumped the highway but the fire was held to about 3 acres in size with the assistance of crews from the Department of Natural Resources, Spokane County Fire District 4 and Spokane County Fire District 9. Two small planes and a helicopter assisted with water dumps.

“It is knocked down,” Guy Gifford of DNR said just before 6 p.m. “We’re putting a trail around it as we speak.”

Also on Wednesday afternoon, firefighters battled a blaze about 7 miles east of Creston in Lincoln County, Gifford said.

The fire, near Miles Creston Road and Telford Road, grew to about 130 acres before crews got a fire line around it, Gifford said. Several structures were threatened but none burned, he said. The fire burned wheat stubble, brush and forest.