WALLA WALLA — A fire in a motor home at Walla Walla killed three women and seriously injured a man, the town’s worst loss of life in a fire in at least four decades.
Police said two of the women appeared to be in their teens and one was about 30. The names of the victims of the Wednesday night fire were not immediately released.
Donald W. Wood, the vehicle owner, apparently had been letting his step-granddaughter live in the RV for the last month and was aware that she may have been a fire victim, police Sgt. Randy Allessio told the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin newspaper.
Jared F. Allen, 41, of Milton-Freewater, Ore., escaped through a rear window of the RV, tried without success to re-enter through a locked door to reach the other occupants, then stumbled down the road calling for help, Allessio said.
Allen was reported in serious condition with burns on the upper part of his body after being flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Police Chief Charles Fulton said he could recall no fire in which more than two people died in Walla Walla since he went to work in the southeast Washington town in 1969. Four people died in a mobile home fire in neighboring College Place in January 1985.
Police and firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze, which started shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Firefighters broke through the locked door and found two dead women near the entry. The third was in another part of the motor home. All apparently died of burns and smoke inhalation.
Allessio said the heat was intense inside the 1970s vintage vehicle, about 26 feet long and parked next to the owner’s home on a wooded lot.
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