A dilapidated farm building in the Custer area caught fire from a nearby burn pile as it was being demolished Tuesday afternoon, May 24.
North Whatcom and Lynden firefighters responded to the fire at 2424 Zell Road just before 3 p.m., said Assistant Fire Chief Robert Spinner.
When firefighters arrived, the 20-by-50-foot storage shack was engulfed. Nothing was inside it. The building sat about 10 feet away from a larger building, but nothing else caught fire.
Firefighters had the fire out in about 15 minutes, Spinner said.
Steve Pabody, 42, who said he owns the property, had been demolishing the building when it caught fire. A burn pile about 5 or 6 feet in front of the structure was burning rotted wood. When the wind picked up, it blew the fire into the building, igniting some of the rotted rafters inside.
“When it started getting windy, we should have put it out then,” Pabody said. “I didn’t think it was a problem.”