Centralia Gentleman Accused of Commencing Composition Fireplace on Port-Owned Property

By Emily Fitzgerald / emily@chronline.com 

A Centralia man has been charged with next-degree arson for allegedly setting up a fireplace that destroyed a Port of Centralia-owned framework on Alder Road Tuesday.

The Riverside Fire Authority responded to the fire on June 22 and evacuated just one gentleman — the defendant, Nathan Hayes — from an abandoned residence involved with the garage. A witness later documented seeing a male matching Hayes’ description operating from the region of the fire shortly after it began.

Tuesday’s hearth is the second this thirty day period to Port of Centralia-owned detached garages on Alder Street, with the initial taking place the morning of June 16.

Equally constructions experienced been scheduled to be demolished prior to the fires. The bring about of the June 16 hearth is however underneath investigation.

In an interview with a Centralia Law enforcement Section detective, Hayes reportedly stated “he caught his girlfriend obtaining intercourse with an individual inside the residence on his mattress (within the residence), so he accidentally set the mattress on hearth,” in accordance to court docket paperwork.

Hayes advised police he moved the burning mattress outdoors the home “but that a individual named ‘James’ moved the mattress to the garage and additional ‘accelerants’ to the mattress, creating it to capture the garage on fire,” according to court files.

The hearth investigation unveiled the mattress was the most probable cause of the garage hearth, obtaining been “drug via the residence and tossed out a window onto a pile of debris in the vicinity of the garage.”

A fire investigator reportedly “indicated that Hayes’ tale did not make perception simply because it was very complicated to have a mattress unintentionally capture on hearth for the reason that of all the fireplace avoidance materials in the mattress,” according to court documents.

Fire investigators have nevertheless to determine the bring about of the June 16 hearth that ruined another port-owned detached garage on Alder Street, but investigators reportedly suspect that Hayes may well have been involved, according to court docket files.

When asked about the June 16 fire, Hayes “appeared to reveal he was responsible for that as very well,” but when questioned straight if he brought on that hearth, Hayes explained he did not begin it.

Centralia police arrested Hayes following their job interview on June 23 and he was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher requested that Judge J. Andrew Toynbee established Hayes’ bail at $100,000 due to the mother nature of the allegations and the enhanced fire chance offered by this weekend’s higher temperatures.

“The condition believes the defendant provides a extreme threat to community protection,” explained Meagher at Hayes’ June 24 preliminary listening to.

When Toynbee agreed with Meagher’s assessment of the danger Hayes would pose to group basic safety if he was unveiled, Toynbee established bail at $25,000 because of to Hayes’ inability to post an exorbitant bail.

As of Friday afternoon, Hayes had not posted bail and was in custody at the Lewis County Jail.

His following courtroom visual appeal is an arraignment listening to scheduled for July 7.