PORT ANGELES — Flammables inside a private shop helped fuel a dramatic fire that destroyed the building Wednesday night.
Clallam County Fire District No. 2 responded at 10:10 p.m. to the fire at 836 Little River Road to find the 40-foot-square shop engulfed in flames only 50 feet from Dalton Haubold’s home.
The shed and thousands of dollars’ worth of contents were destroyed, Chief Sam Phillips said.
The cause of the fire will remain undetermined, Phillips added after an inspection Thursday morning.
“Due to the extent of the devastation, I doubt we’ll be able to come up with a cause,” Phillips said.
No one was hurt in the blaze.
The blaze was so hot it scorched the siding and broke a couple of windows in Haubold’s mobile home, even though the flames never reached the structure.
Haubold told firefighters the building was valued at $50,000 and the contents at about $70,000, Assistant Chief Mike DeRousie said.
Gasoline, motor oil, solvents and an oxygen and acetylene welding unit had been stored in the shed and fueled the blaze, Phillips said.
“He had a lot of fuel,” he added.
Firefighters cooled a 250-gallon propane tank, located 20 to 30 feet behind the shed, so that it did not explode, the chief said.
Inside the shop was a Kubota tractor, two boats, a hoist, a metal lathe, thousands of dollars’ worth of tools and a bundle of tongue-and-groove pine boards — and all were destroyed, DeRousie said.
The shop and contents were not insured, he added.
Haubold told DeRousie he heard the alarm go off in the shop, looked outside and saw flames.
After trying to put out the fire with an extinguisher, he called 9-1-1 and tried unsuccessfully to fight the flames with a garden hose.
“It apparently had quite a headway before his alarm system sounded,” Phillips said.
The owner said the fire was near the front of the shed, “but he couldn’t get 12 inches inside the shop, it was so heavily involved,” Phillips said.
When firefighters arrived, they found the shed engulfed in flames.
They contained the fire within two hours and finally extinguished it in about six, Phillips said.
The shop was built with a metal roof and sides, and when the roof collapsed, it made it hard for firefighters to get to all the hot spots, DeRousie said.
A fire watch was set overnight.
Fourteen firefighters, with two fire engines, two water tenders and a command vehicle and medic unit, responded to the fire.