Pair honored for fire response

Sheriff Jon Dearmore has honored a father and son for spotting and responding to the fire that burned two houses on Cape Horn on June 11.

Lorenzo Mendez and his son, Tristan, age 14, were on their way to County Line Park around 5 a.m. when they headed up SR 4 by Cape Horn. Tristan said he spotted an orange glow and realized a house was on fire. He yelled, and Lorenzo pulled his vehicle onto the highway shoulder.

While Lorenzo ran to see if people were out of the house, which belonged to Don and Virginia Fullerton, Tristan dialed 9-1-1 to report the fire. The dispatcher on duty was his stepfather, Dave Davis. Tristan told him where the fire was and started relaying information to Davis.

Lorenzo said flames were coming out of the back, or river side of the house, when he ran to the door. He encountered Virginia Fullerton at the door; she tossed a bag to him and he took her up to the highway by Tristan. They told Dave there might be someone inside, and Lorenzo ran back to the basement. He looked in a window and saw no one; ran back and reported that, and ran back and broke the window to call inside. He heard people shouting from below the house and went back to the highway. At this point the house was becoming fully engulfed in flame.

"It was hot," Lorenzo said who has experience fighting wildland fires. "I was wearing rubber boots, and they were hot."

Davis, working alone at 5 a.m., toned out District 4, Cathlamet, Skamokawa and Puget Island fire departments; Cowlitz 2 was later called to assist.

"It was pretty confusing at the start," he said. "We didn't know if there was someone inside or not."

Tristan's call was the second to report the fire. Davis said he earlier received another that said something like, "The house is on fire," before the phone cut out. He had only an address that came with the call, and he was starting to tone out the fire departments when Tristan called.

Mike Wright, a lieutenant in the District 4 department, was one of the first firemen on the scene. Fullertons' house was burning, and the fire was starting to spread to a neighboring house owned by Randy and Tracy Zacher.

"It was scary," Wright said. The firemen didn't have a lot of water. They concentrated on trying to protect neighboring house and cooling the Fullerton house.

"There were around 50 volunteers from all the departments," Wright said. "They did an awesome job."

Sheriff Dearmore said he wanted to honor Lorenzo and Tristan because they stopped and put themselves at risk to help others. "You guys are heroes," he said. "Without your efforts, it could have been a lot worse."