Apartment building burns down in Moses Lake
CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 2 years, 9 months AGO
MOSES LAKE — One person was injured and five were left homeless when an early morning fire gutted an apartment building at the corner of North Grape Drive and West Luta Street on Wednesday, according to Moses Lake Fire Chief Brett Bastian.
“It’s damaged pretty much beyond repair,” Bastian said of the apartment building. “The four apartments are not livable.”
Bastian said firefighters from the Moses Lake Fire Department and Grant County Fire District 5 responded shortly after 7 a.m. to the fire. It is believed the fire started in a stove in one of the small apartment building’s four units but spread quickly into the attic and throughout the entire building.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze at around 10:30 a.m., the chief added.
“We still have it under investigation,” Bastian said.
Bastian said one resident was treated for smoke inhalation and transported to Samaritan Hospital for evaluation.
However, the residents of the four apartments no longer have a place to live, Bastian said. The MLFD contacted both HopeSource and the Red Cross to help residents displaced by the fire, according to the MLFD’s Facebook page.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.
ARTICLES BY CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Potato prices up, sales down for first quarter 2023
DENVER — The value of grocery store potato sales rose 16% during the first three months of 2023 as the total volume of sales fell by 4.4%, according to a press release from PotatoesUSA, the national marketing board representing U.S. potato growers. The dollar value of all categories of U.S. potato products for the first quarter of 2023 was $4.2 billion, up from $3.6 billion for the first three months of 2022. However, the total volume of potato sales fell to 1.77 billion pounds in the first quarter of 2023 compared with 1.85 billion pounds during the same period of 2022, the press release noted. However, total grocery store potato sales for the first quarter of 2023 are still above the 1.74 billion pounds sold during the first three months of 2019 – a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the press release said.
WSU Lind Dryland Research Station welcomes new director
LIND — Washington State University soil scientist and wheat breeder Mike Pumphrey was a bit dejected as he stood in front of some thin test squares of stunted, somewhat scraggly spring wheat at the university’s Lind Dryland Research Station. “As you can see, the spring wheat is having a pretty tough go of it this year,” he said. “It’s a little discouraging to stand in front of plots that are going to yield maybe about seven bushels per acre. Or something like that.” Barely two inches of rain have fallen at the station since the beginning of March, according to station records. Pumphrey, speaking to a crowd of wheat farmers, researchers, seed company representatives and students during the Lind Dryland Research Station’s annual field day on Thursday, June 15, said years like 2023 are a reminder that dryland farming is a gamble.
Wilson Creek hosts bluegrass gathering
WILSON CREEK — Bluegrass in the Park is set to start today at Wilson Creek City Park. The inaugural event is set to bring music and visitors to one of Grant County’s smallest towns. “I've been listening to bluegrass my whole life,” said the event’s organizer Shirley Billings, whose family band plays on their porch every year for the crowd at the Little Big Show. “My whole family plays bluegrass. And I just wanted to kind of get something for the community going. So I just invited all the people that I know and they’ll come and camp and jam.” ...