The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - A fire on the south end of town was quickly contained early Saturday evening, but not before raising the heart rates of nearby neighbors. Perry Dozier's harvest crew took a break from their work, just south of town, to keep an eye on the black plume of smoke rising over the recently harvested hill of pea stubble to their northwest. Residents on the south ends of Orchard and Main Street, watched from their yards as leaping flames licked the hillside on the far side of Coppei Creek and animals on Gary and Cindy Hofer's farm property were readied for evacuation.

Margaret Terry, who...