Highway 395 reopens in south Kennewick after fire burns near Southridge High School
A fire near Southridge High School closed the southbound lanes of Highway 395 on Thursday evening, filling the sky with a smoke plume that drifted eerily across the Tri-Cities.
The fire south of the school spread to at least one commercial storage building, and threatened homes. It scorched 70 acres of brush while being driven by gusting winds of up to 22 mph.
Benton County Fire District 1 Chief Lonnie Click said they believe the fire started near the interchange of Interstate 82 and Highway 395 and then jumped across to the Southridge area.
It spread to the CentiMark Roofing Company’s equipment yard, in the 4800 block of Southridge. Firefighters were still battling a fire at a CentiMark building, but no houses were in danger, Click said.’
Kennewick Fire Chief Chad Michael said the wild land fire was out by 7 p.m., but the commercial building burned well into the night.
Watts Construction helped with a track hoe to pull apart the wreckage of the building, so firefighters could get to the remaining fire, Michael said in a Twitter post shortly before 9 p.m.
Firefighters from Kennewick were helped by crews from Richland, Pasco and Benton County.
Southbound Highway 395 traffic was stopped at West 27th Avenue to I-82 for several hours because of burning brush along the roadways and thick smoke. The lanes reopened at 9:30 p.m.
But the on-ramp from Highway 395 southbound onto I-82 westbound remained closed.
City streets south of Ridgeline Drive were blocked off by police to keep people from driving into the neighborhoods and active fire areas.
It was one of several fires in Benton and Franklin counties on Thursday afternoon.
A small fire was reported a few miles away at Bofer Canyon Road and East Bateman Road around 5:30 p.m..
Firefighters in Franklin County fought a brush fire near Quail Road and Road 36 North.
Kennewick firefighters called for off-duty crews to report to their stations.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Highway 395 reopens in south Kennewick after fire burns near Southridge High School."