<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<TITLE>Message</TITLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16544" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#800000 size=2>
<H2><SPAN class=921084720-15112007><FONT size=2>Thankfully, no loss of
life:</FONT></SPAN></H2>
<H2><SPAN class=921084720-15112007><FONT
size=2>--------------------------------------</FONT></SPAN></H2>
<H2><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>Arson suspected in string of
Pullman fires</FONT></H2>
<P
style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>Blazes destroy nine-unit apartment complex,
duplex, detached garage and several vehicles </FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>By Hillary Hamm, Daily News staff
writer</FONT></P>
<P style="FONT-SIZE: 10px; font-color: gray"><FONT face="Times New Roman"
color=#000000>Thursday, November 15, 2007 - Page Updated at 12:00:00
AM</FONT></P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>Police and fire officials say
arson is suspected in five fires that occurred early this morning in
Pullman.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>"These are all suspicious, and I
would consider them all related," said Mike Heston, operations officer with the
Pullman Fire Department.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>Fire crews first responded at 4:31
a.m. to a fire in the 500 block of Southeast Jackson Street, where a detached
garage was engulfed in flames. The garage and the two cars that were inside it
are considered a total loss, Fire Chief Pat Wilkins said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>While on Jackson Street, crews
responded to another garage fire, which was contained to a cabinet and did
little damage, Wilkins said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>At 5:13 a.m., crews were called to
an apartment fire at 129 NW True St. The nine-unit complex was fully engulfed
when firefighters arrived, Heston said. Crews from Whitman County Rural Fire
District 12, Colfax and Moscow arrived to help fight the fires. Pullman police
officers provided security while firefighters doused the flames, which spread to
a neighboring duplex at 133 NW True St., and ignited several
vehicles.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>A resident in the nine-unit
complex was trapped inside the burning structure and "ran and bailed out" of a
top-floor window, Heston said. The man landed on top of a 15-foot retaining
wall. He suffered a singed airway due to the hot gasses and was covered in cuts
from the glass. The man was in stable condition and airlifted to Harborview
Medical Center in Seattle for treatment, Wilkins said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>While at the True Street fires,
crews were called to a fire on Mackenzie Street where a vehicle - located in a
parking lot behind Pullman Honda - was engulfed in flames.Pullman Police Cmdr.
Chris Tennant said he has received a report of a white male with brown hair
wearing a red jacket "looking suspicious" in the area around the time of the
vehicle fire. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>"It's a pretty (vague)
description," he said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>As of 9 a.m. today, crews were
working to clean up the scenes and awaiting the arrival of investigators from
the Washington Region 8 Arson Task Force who will help determine the cause of
the fires. Heston said that since no evidence - such as gas cans - have been
found at the fire scenes, he was reluctant to call the fires
arson-caused.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>"I'll let the investigators
determine that," he said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>Heston said his crews also are
prepared to fight more fires today, if necessary. The Pullman Fire Department
has investigated arson in the past, but "nothing to this magnitude," he
said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000></FONT><STRONG></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#000000>Hillary Hamm</FONT></STRONG><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#000000> can be reached at (509) 334-6397 ext. 307,
or by e-mail at hhamm@dnews.com</FONT></P></SPAN></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>