Four Longview families were displaced by two different fires Wednesday evening, according to the Longview Fire Department.
Three of those families were involved in an apartment fire reported at 5:45 p.m. in the 1900 block of Dorothy Street.
Battalion chief Troy Buzalsky said the department “redeployed” fire crews from another potential fire reported in West Longview, and units from as far away as Kalama were also sent to help.
When firefighters arrived to the two-story building, the apartment managers told them the fire was already out. However, crews found the fire still burning within a wall, Buzalsky said.
“When a fire is burning inside a wall, although it may look out to an untrained eye, when we get there were our specialized tools...we could quickly identify the fire was burning inside the wall,” Buzalsky said.
The fire started after plumbing work “accidentally ignited combustibles inside the wall,” Buzalsky said.
Crews extinguished the fire before it spread to the upstairs units, but there was significant smoke damage to the unit directly above the fire, the news release says.