Vancouver Heights — Glena Dersch is thankful that her Columbian newspaper carrier rang her doorbell multiple times early in the morning last week. Fabiola Hernandez-Colin alerted the Dersches to flames coming from an outbuilding behind her house at about 4:45 a.m. on Dec. 23.
“She just rang the doorbell a couple times and said, ‘there is a fire behind your house,’ ” Dersch said. “Then she took off.”
Dersch called 911 and firefighters arrived to a fully-involved fire in the garage belonging to their neighbors, who live at 9104 Boulder Ave., Vancouver.
The flames caused an estimated $80,000 in damage to the structure and contents. “That shop was an inferno,” Dersch said. Dersch’s classic car, a 1967 Pontiac Tempest, was stored in an outbuilding about 10 feet away from the fire and Dersch was worried an ember would spread the flames to their property.
“I wanted to give her another thanks,” Dersch said. “That was so great of her to wake us up. Other people may have drove by and not said anything, but she didn’t.”
