Jefferson County International Airport (0S9), Port Townsend, Washington

Nineteen firefighters from three agencies responded to a Nov. 6 fire near the Jefferson County International Airport.

A fire late in the evening of Sunday, Nov. 6 destroyed a man’s living quarters and an adjacent semi-trailer on the site of an old quarry, located between Theater Road and Airport Road on State Route 19 near the county airport. There were no injuries.

East Jefferson Fire Rescue firefighters were paged after several simultaneous 911 calls came in at 10:08 p.m., according to Bill Beezley, EJFR public information specialist. Upon arrival, they found the man’s home and a nearby 8-foot-by-28-foot semi-trailer fully engulfed in flames.

Assistant Chief Bob Low directed the measured firefighter response, which was hampered by a lack of fire hydrants in the area, reported Beezley.

“We drained the water from two engines and one 3,500-gallon water tender in the first 25 minutes,” said Low. Additional water tenders from Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue and Discovery Bay (District 5) were called in for backup. Low estimated that firefighters used more than 5,000 gallons of water to contain the blaze.

The occupant of the property said he had been living in an 8-foot-by-12-foot former “coffee shack,” said Beezley. With the onset of cold weather, he purchased five small cans of Dine-A-Heat Blue, a methanol gel fuel with 2 1/2 hours of burn time. The product is typically used in the food service industry to warm containers of food, Beezley said, but the occupant was using the containers to heat the building.

The occupant told responders he went to the store, leaving a can of methanol burning. Upon his return an hour later, the building was on fire. He attempted to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher, but was unable to contain it, reported Beezley. After realizing that the fire would spread to the adjacent semi-trailer, he went inside to remove a large tank containing acetylene, a volatile compound, before firefighters arrived.

The fire was also punctuated by the sounds of ammunition exploding, said Beezley. The occupant stated that the shack contained “…about 60 rounds.”

In addition to Port Ludlow and Discovery Bay teams, firefighters from NAVMAG Indian Island also responded. A total of 19 firefighters were involved in putting the blaze out.