White Swan fire aftermath: 'We have nothing'

WHITE SWAN, Wash. -- Tears welled in Loretta Lucei’s eyes Sunday as she stared at the pile of ashes and mangled metal that was once her family’s home.

Her home was one of 20 destroyed this weekend when the most devastating wildfire that Yakima County firefighters can recall ripped through this rural community deep in the Yakama reservation.

"It was a red house before this," she said somberly as she stood next to her husband’s 2005 Dodge Durango. "We have nothing but our car now."

At one end of the home’s foundation was a handful of marbles belonging to her 9-year-old son. Yards away sat what remained of her 2002 GMC Envoy. Gutted by fire, its aluminum mag wheels had melted.

"I just got that car, and now it’s nothing," said Lucei, an administrative assistant with the Yakama Nation.

Hers was an all too familiar sight in the Second Street neighborhood, where nothing remained of seven homes except ash and rubble. Families combed through the debris Sunday hoping to find anything that survived.

"It’s shocking," said Lucei’s husband, Kevin Heath. "You don’t expect stuff like this to happen."

Authorities say a chimney fire at a Hitchcock Lane home spread to nearby trees and bushes about 1:30 p.m. Saturday. Winds estimated at 50 mph and gusts of more than 70 mph quickly fanned the flames into a conflagration.

Wind-pushed flames raced along a dry creekbed, feeding on grass, shrubs and trees, then spread into clusters of homes in the Second Street and Corburn Loop neighborhoods.

"It moved pretty fast. It was just funneled right toward the community of White Swan," said Yakima County Fire District No. 5 Deputy Chief Allen Walker.

Winds blew so hard that water from fire hoses was blown away before reaching flames, said Yakama Nation Fire Management Officer Don Jones.

"The wind was so strong you couldn’t walk in it," he said. "That wind was just pushing that water away from the house."

Walker, a fire district veteran of 27 years, called it by far the county’s most devastating fire.

"No place has lost 20 homes," he said.

Yakama Nation Fire Management crews expect to continue mopping up through at least Wednesday.

Although two firefighters suffered eye irritations from smoke or flying debris, no serious injuries were reported. A preliminary loss estimate isn’t expected for several days.

About noon Sunday, residents who had evacuated to shelters in Harrah and Toppenish on Saturday were allowed to return to White Swan.

They found crews still busy putting out hotspots, cutting down blackened and scorched trees, and monitoring fires in a haystack and log pile at the Jeld-Wen wood-chipping mill that are expected to continue burning until at least today.

About 100 firefighters, police and other personnel from across the Yakima Valley were still on scene Sunday afternoon.

Across the street from the devastated Second Street neighborhood, a couple stood as they recalled the evacuation.

"It was pretty scary — people coming out crying, knowing that they were going to lose their homes," said Stacy Lewis, who along with her husband, Jeremy Lewis, helped some people leave. "They had no time — kids walking in tanktops carrying a baby in a blanket. They had no time."

Nearby, Barbara Martin hoped family members would find something worth salvaging from her destroyed home.

Her eyes moistened as she looked at her sister, whose home just two doors down from hers was also destroyed. Both had lived in the neighborhood for 30 years.

"It kind of hurts," she said. "It’s got a lot of memories."

But no one was injured, and she was happy about that. Her three grandchildren, ages 3, 5 and 3 months, were at her home when the fire tore into the neighborhood.

She said her home probably caught fire just minutes after she left. She watched it burn from a convenience store across the street.

"There’s a lot of memories in that house — family pictures that can’t be replaced," she said. "But nothing is more valuable than the grandchildren."

Martin, her husband and grandchildren plan to stay temporarily at her mother’s house on Hawk Road, southwest of White Swan.

"It’s going to be pretty crowded out there," she said.

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

How to help

* Donations to assist victims of the White Swan fire are being accepted at the Toppenish Armory, 326 S. Division St., Toppenish.

* For additional information, call Colleen Reimer at 509-388-3300.