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Here are some of the stories that grabbed our readers’ attention this week.
A fast-moving fire destroyed a house, a detached garage and a car, and damaged a second house near Clark College Thursday afternoon. It was one of two nearly concurrent major fires that stretched firefighting resources throughout the metro area.
The fire erupted about 4:40 p.m. at 1517 East Reserve St. Witnesses told firefighters they heard popping and saw something flying in the air.
After sewage backed up onto the first floor of the men’s homeless shelter in downtown Vancouver, shutting down the evening’s hot meal program, Diane McWithey knew the building had reached a breaking point. Something had to be done.
As of Tuesday, Share House no longer allows people who aren’t residents to shower at the facility or use the restrooms outside of meal times. It was the only local public facility that offered free showers to people who live outside, and there are few other places homeless people can go to use the bathroom.
“This was not an easy decision to make by any stretch of the imagination,” McWithey said. “We all feel horrible about it.”
Police suspect an impaired driver may have caused a four-vehicle crash that killed a Vancouver woman Tuesday morning east of Orchards.
The crash blocked both lanes on state Highway 500 for several hours.
Washington State Patrol troopers were called to the crash on state Highway 500 near Northeast 182nd Avenue just before 9:30 a.m. and arrived to find four vehicles involved.
Vancouver’s next mayor will either be a long-time community volunteer and current city councilor or a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who has sharply criticized the city’s leadership.
On election night, Vancouver City Councilor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, who serves as mayor pro tem, won 63 percent of the 15,981 ballots counted. Steven Cox, a political newcomer and a precinct committee officer with the local Republican Party, will face her in the general election after receiving 20 percent of the vote.
Prosecutors have filed murder charges against the resident of a Hockinson home where the body of a man, who was beat and shot, was found in a shed.
Traci Lynn Mendez, 41, appeared Wednesday morning in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first- and second-degree murder. She is one of five co-defendants accused in the slaying of 34-year-old Raymond C. Brandon.
Brandon’s body was found April 27, nearly a week after he was killed, in a shed at Mendez’s residence, 15308 N.E. 172nd Ave., southeast of Hockinson High School.
