Tri-City neighbors band together during and after massive fire

Josh and Cindy Carver had stopped by her sister’s South Ely Street home to visit and have a late lunch Saturday afternoon.

Then Josh noticed a thin column of smoke behind the hill.

“I told everyone inside that it looked like there was a forest fire nearby,” he said. “By the time it took to get from the back door to the corner of the house to look up the hill, the sky went black.”

The Carvers were among the hundreds caught off guard by the Bofer Canyon fire that raced toward homes in south Kennewick and later Finley. The pair, who were visiting after a trip to the Oregon Coast, jumped in to help.

Josh ran up to one of the neighbor’s homes and warned them about the fire, before helping another neighbor move four Mustangs and a Harley-Davidson out of a garage before the fire swept down and destroyed it.

Then, he returned and began spraying the brush around his sister-in-law’s home.

“We spent the rest of the night spraying down and trying to keep hot spots from flaring up,” he said on Sunday.

People talked about the suddenness of the blaze. Both neighborhoods had spots where the sage and grasses were burned by the flames, but it skirted the trimmed lawn.

Throughout the area there were signs Sunday of firefighters continuing to monitor the burned spots. They sprayed brush, traveled to homes and checked to make sure people were OK. Around the neighborhood were signs of people grateful for their efforts.

One home had a sign draped across the deck thanking firefighters and police.

On 48th Avenue, some kids organized an impromptu lemonade stand to benefit fire crews.

The area behind their homes was blackened by the blaze and a steady stream of onlookers were driving by Sunday.

Kennedy and Emree Stewart, along with Duke and Sloane Stricker, planned to have the lemonade stand later this week, but the fire changed their plans.

“We were trying to figure out who we would donate to on Wednesday, and we were seeing all of this traffic,” Calvin Stewart said. “We were like, ‘Perfect timing. Let’s do this today and donate it all to the fire department’.”

They were taking donations for each glass of lemonade, and the first customer gave them $20.

This story was originally published August 12, 2018 at 6:44 PM.