A two-story shop located at an Orchards residence that county officials have for years called a nuisance property was destroyed in an early morning fire.
Firefighters were called to 6114 N.E. 112th Ave., across the street from Covington Middle School, at about 3:15 a.m. Thursday for a report of a blaze.
Arriving crews found flames coming through the roof, Vancouver Fire Department spokesman Joe Spatz said.
The shop, one of five or six buildings at the address, was surrounded by building material that pervaded the property, making it difficult to fight the flames, Spatz said.
Crews on five engines and one ladder truck took a defensive approach, dousing the blaze from the outside to try to keep the fire from spreading to other buildings, Spatz said.
After fighting the blaze for about an hour, crews finally brought it under control when a firefighter took a hose line up a ladder and doused the flames from above, Spatz said.
Crews then had to use a track hoe to dismantle the building and move the contents around to make sure the fire was out.
There were no injuries, Spatz said, and no other structures on the property sustained major damage.
Abdul Quddus, who lives next door, was awoken at about 3:15 a.m. by his wife, who heard pounding on their front door.
Quddus said he went outside and saw a small fire next door and deputy patrol vehicles and fire trucks heading down the street.
“It was just a matter of minutes and the flames were 10 to 20 feet high,” he said.
For safety reasons, the couple keeps security cameras around their property. They said they’ve never had trouble with their neighbors, aside from there being several police raids at the property and the fact that the way it looks makes it annoying.
“It doesn’t look good right next to our house,” Quddus said. “But, we try to mind our own business.”
At least two people, a man and a woman who escaped the fire with little clothing on, were left without anywhere to go, Quddus said.
Despite not knowing their names, Quddus and his wife opened their home to the pair, giving them clothes and allowing them to sleep in a back bedroom for the rest of the morning.
“(Our house) would be open to anybody in the case of a catastrophe,” Quddus said. “That’s not even a question.”
Two people were sleeping in the house and two people were sleeping in the shop when the fire happened, Deputy Clark County Fire Marshal Dan Young said. He hadn’t yet had the chance to interview two of those people, so hasn’t yet determined the cause of the fire, he said.
Damage to the 20-by-40-foot structure and contents was estimated at about $110,000, Young said.
The property has a long-standing history of being an eyesore in the Orchards area. With heaps of debris and inoperable vehicles surrounding the outside of the house, Clark County code enforcement officials receive complaints and inquiries weekly about the property.
There are occupied travel trailers, storage containers and building taking place without permits or proper safety protocols, county officials said.
More than two years ago, the county began working with the property owner, William Rathgeber, to correct multiple local and state law violations. But after numerous warnings and monthly visits, the property was still not up to code.
After the property was raided in November, Rathgeber, 56, faces first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful use of a building for drug purposes, possession of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver, possession of a stolen firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon. Rathgeber faces similar charges in a pending case from May 2016 and was free on bail when he was arrested again.
In February, Clark County filed a complaint for injunctive relief, abatement and damages against the property owner in Superior Court — with the hope of getting the go-ahead to take action.
But until the county gets the court order, its hands are essentially tied and the case isn’t set to go to trial until March.
Kevin Pridemore, lead code enforcement coordinator, said that the building destroyed in the fire was a part of the complaint against the property owner, as it was built without permits in 2007.
Nobody was supposed to be staying at the house, deemed a dangerous structure, or any other building on the property, Pridemore said.
Code enforcement officers visited the property Thursday morning, Pridemore said, so to keep prosecutors updated on what’s happening at the site.
