Flames caused about $100,000 in damages to a residential shop and utility space in the rural Molalla-Canby area this afternoon.
Fire officials had not determined the cause of the fire as of press time. The fire started in the back corner of a large shop space on the 27500 block of South Maslow Road. The structure was unoccupied and the property owners were not home at the time.
Neighbors called to report the fire at about 2 p.m. and engines from Molalla and Canby Fire District, along with Colton Fire District and Clackamas Fire District #1 responded to the scene, containing most of the fire within an hour. The metal structure was left largely intact, although the flames burst through the roof and burned holes in some sections of the walls.
Neighbor Madeleine Larose said the flames rose “a good five feet above the roof” when she spotted the fire and called to report it.
Property owner Norman Haines, a cabinet maker, was at his home shop at he and his wife’s second house when his wife called to tell him about the fire, he said.
Aside from a set of cabinets that was burned up in the fire, he said, the majority of the possessions inside the shop belonged to a friend of his son, who plays drums for a Christian country band called Holy Cow, currently on tour in North Dakota.
“Someone called (my son) on his cell phone and told him the house was on fire,” Haines said, at which the son called his mother.
Along with household goods, Haines said, there were a couple of motorcycles and some band equipment in the shop, as well as a back room with a bed where the drummer would occasionally stay when the band was home from tour.
As of press time, fire officials were still on scene attempting to determine a cause.
— Abby Sewell
With this fire and the other two we have had lately, I’d say we have a fire bug on our hands!