A Bayview area woman escaped from her burning house Tuesday during an adventurous pre-winter week that featured vehicles sliding off snow-covered roads throughout Whidbey Island, and record low temperatures that didn’t warm up until Thanksgiving.
Schools were closed, activities and meetings were canceled and the holiday started early for many who where trapped at home by the weather and as much as six inches of snow. Some were left to ponder how they would get the missing ingredients for their turkey dinners on Thursday.
By Friday, however, most of the snow was gone, replaced by more familiar rain and mild temperatures that are expected to remain for a while, according to weather forecasters.
In Bayview, Assistant Chief Paul Busch of Island County Fire District 3 said the fire victim, described as in her 80s, was being assisted by neighbors and the Island County Chapter of the American Red Cross, after her house and belongings were all but destroyed.
Busch said the woman, the only occupant of the single-story house at the time of the fire, told officials she had removed hot ashes from her fireplace in a bucket, then later put them in a paper bag and put the bag in her attached garage.
Busch said the ashes ignited the garage, and the flames spread to the house.
The fire was reported at about 3 p.m. Tuesday, and nearly 20 firefighters spent about three hours at the scene, Busch said.
The house is in the Sun Vista Circle neighborhood near Sunlight Shores.
No other buildings in the neighborhood were threatened, he said.
“We got the fire out pretty quickly, but with smoke and water damage, the house was virtually destroyed,” Busch said. He said the garage, and a car inside, also were a total loss.
Later Tuesday, firefighters also responded to a burning chicken coop at Scenic Road and Apple Lane in Freeland. Busch said that fire, which resulted when a heat lamp fell into combustible material, was reported about 11 p.m.
“It was an easy fire to put out,” he said. “And all the chickens got out.”
Unusual weather
The mid-November rush of arctic air from Canada was unusual for this time of year, but not unheard of, weather forecasters said.
“These only come around about once in a decade,” meteorologist Mike McFarland of the National Weather Service in Seattle said Friday morning.
“November of ’85 — that was a good one,” he added.
The winters of 1949 and 1955 were also memorable, he said, with record snowfalls and cold temperatures.
McFarland said temperatures this past week set record lows in most areas of Puget Sound, from Port Angeles south. Eleven degrees was recorded at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor on Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, and 12 degrees in Langley.
McFarland said temperatures reached zero in some areas, factoring in the wind chill.
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport south of Seattle, one of a few spots in the region for which official temperature records are kept, reported a record 14 degrees overnight Tuesday. The old record was 16 degrees, McFarland said.
“It’s safe to say records were set throughout the region,” he said.
Lots of snow
More snow than expected accumulated in many areas of South Whidbey, including as much as six inches in Langley and Scatchet Head.
Officials said there were no temperature-related emergencies such as broken pipes reported Wednesday and Thursday, nor were any further vehicle misadventures reported due to slippery roads.
“There were a few medical calls, but otherwise it was a pretty uneventful holiday,” Deputy Fire Chief Mike Cotton said Friday morning.
McFarland said modified arctic fronts such as the one this past week usually don’t reoccur more than three times in one winter.
Typically, there’s only one, and often none, he said.
McFarland said there may also be a few scattered snow showers this weekend, when temperatures drop to near freezing, but without accumulation.
Although warnings of a harsh winter have swirled like snow since late summer, the suddenness of this past week’s storm took many by surprise.
Although a light snowfall was expected overnight Sunday, commuters awoke Monday morning to bare vegetation and even barer roads.
By 7 a.m. Monday, however, scattered wispy snowflakes fluttered to the ground on the South End, and began to stick in earnest in the Freeland area. Coupeville was bare and dry at 8 a.m., but a half hour later was beginning to turn white as the gathering storm moved north.
Motorists, a few with chains on their vehicles, clattered at modest speeds along Highway 525, and those without chains appeared to be proceeding cautiously, some with wheels spinning as they negotiated hills.
Students in the South Whidbey School District started classes on time Monday morning, but were dismissed about 10 a.m. as the snowfall increased.
It was a bonus break from school: Students got the rest of the week off after another snow day on Tuesday, then came the Thanksgiving break through Friday.
Snow continued to fall steadily, and by noon Monday there were at least two inches accumulated. By Tuesday morning, there were five or six inches in much of the South End.
No injuries
Although a number of vehicles slid off the slippery roads, damage was light and no one was reported injured during the first two days of the storm, emergency response officials said.
“No one was hurt, there were no trees down and there were no power outages,” Busch said. “The calls stopped coming in about 8 p.m. Monday, and it was quiet the rest of the night.”
Some drivers caught off the island Monday spent hours trying to get back. District 3 Fire Chief Rusty Palmer said it took him more than four hours to get from Bellevue to South Whidbey.
“I’m a country boy,” Palmer said Tuesday. “I’m not used to that kind of crowded city driving.”
Busch said emergency crews responded to two vehicle fires on Monday, both at private South End residences and both resulting in heavy damage, but no injuries.
He said a car was damaged in the vicinity of Scenic Avenue and Osprey Road in Freeland. Busch said the owner had just parked the vehicle, and had gone inside the house.
“The neighbor knocked on the door and said ‘Your car is on fire,’” Busch said.
The second vehicle involved a van at a residence on Sanford Lane in the Bayview area, Busch said. He said the van was completely destroyed.
“Even with chains on, we couldn’t get the fire engine up the hill to it,” he said.
Brisk business
Meanwhile, business was more than brisk at South End businesses dealing in cold-weather supplies.
Tire dealers reported a run on chains and studded snow tires, and hardware dealers rang up a high volume of sales for items to combat the snow, ice and cold.
“They took just about everything we’ve got,” owner Dana Gildersleeve of Whidbey Tire and Auto in Bayview, said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re in deep doo-doo, because the warehouse in Auburn is getting low, too.”
Gildersleeve said his shop sold more than 50 sets of tire chains, and about 75 tires on Monday alone. He said no new deliveries were made Tuesday, because the distributor couldn’t get through.
“People panic when they can’t get around,” Gildersleeve said. “The best rule of thumb is, if you don’t have to go, don’t go.”
Meanwhile, Sebo’s Do-It Center at Bayview Center did a heavy business in shovels and sleds, said manager Stan Willhight. He said his inventory was still solvent Tuesday, because of several items left over from last year, which had a mild winter.
Ace Hardware in Freeland also did a brisk business in cold-weather items, manager Gary Ando said. He reported strong sales in things such as de-icers, shovels, generators, sleds, batteries, lanterns and fuel for portable lights and camp stoves.
Ando said many of those purchases were made by businesses who failed to get ready ahead of time for winter weather, despite numerous forecasts and warnings.
“Maybe they should have been more prepared, instead of coming in and wiping me out,” he said with a chuckle.
But by and large, the response to the year’s first snowfall was encouraging, said.
“Island people were much more prepared then in the past,” he said. “It was good to see a lot of this stuff going out before anything happened.”
