Whatcom couple receives a rude welcome to Sunday’s winter weather
One minute a Sumas couple was enjoying the warm comfort of their apartment on the second floor of the B&B Border Inn, the next they literally were out in the elements during Sunday night’s arctic blast blowing out of the Fraser Valley.
Winds gusting up to 70 mph ripped the west facade of the building’s roof off and deposited it nearby on Cherry Street, exposing the apartment and the two residents inside to the freezing temperatures.
Whatcom County Fire District 14 responded at 10:01 p.m. to a confined space report at 121 Cleveland Street.
“When we first got the report, it was unclear if it was a partial collapse or not,” Chief Jerry DeBruin told The Bellingham Herald on Monday. “We knew that there was somebody living in the apartment, and there was the chance that they were trapped under debris.”
Fortunately, it was just an upper section of the building that blew off and fell relatively harmlessly to the street below, DeBruin said, as nobody was injured.
“It was a little unnerving, and understandably, they were pretty shaken up,” DeBruin told The Herald. “But there was another apartment they were able to get them into.”
Despite the missing facade, DeBruin said fire crews found the remaining structure to be sound and isolated power to that section of the building to turn it off. After about an hour of cleanup, they also were able to reopen Cherry Street.
This story was originally published February 4, 2019 at 9:45 AM.
