MOLALLA, Ore. (KOIN) – A 3-alarm blaze gutted an historic Molalla building that destroyed one business, damaged another and forcing a mother to flee, but her adult son did not make it out.
The fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. at the old boutique building near the intersection of North Molalla Avenue and West Main Street. Crews arrived on scene to an aggressive fire with flames coming out both the front and back of the building.
Canby Fire Division Chief Todd Gary told KOIN 6 News the fire spread to Bentley Feed Store, the business next door, before they were able to stop it. The family-owned store was significantly damaged with half of its roof collapsing.
The boutique store’s roof also collapsed — destroying the building. Other neighboring buildings suffered smoke or water damage as well.
A sushi restaurant that opened about a month ago was also damaged.
Earlier in the day crews moved in with a ladder truck to get an even closer look before pulling the building apart with heavy equipment. The fragile state of the historic building hampered fire investigators and efforts to find the missing man. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Molalla, dating back into the late 1800s.
DEVELOPING: An old boutique in Molalla went up in flames last night. The roof collapsed and it is completely destroyed. The fire spread to a nearby feed store. One woman made it out OK, another person is missing. #KOIN6News pic.twitter.com/rmPeLNAFMh— Elise Haas (@EliseKOIN) February 7, 2019
Crews later learned that property owners were still living in the boarded up building. The woman reported that she woke up to smoke alarms going off and significant smoke inside the structure.
Carl Belles witnessed the building burn and said it was remarkable that the elderly woman escaped the billowing smoke.
“A lady came out,” Belles said. “We escorted her to our house and took care of her and made sure she was okay and comforted her.”
However, her son, who is in his 50s, was missing.
On Friday, the Canby Fire Department tweeted his body was found inside the building. He was identified as Guy Tolstead.
The fire victim from the 3 alarm fire in Molalla was found deceased in the building today Our thoughts are with the family pic.twitter.com/n2DKPNHc35— Canby Fire (@CanbyFire) February 8, 2019
Gary said crews worked until Thursday morning putting out hot spots. He added that a few factors made fighting this fire difficult: the location, the structures being so close together, the cold weather, the aggressive spread and that the building was built in the 1920s.
Due to the significant damage of the building, officials couldn’t safely get inside the burned structure to investigate, so they put up a drone to get a visual from overhead.
“A lot of times when you’re doing an investigation, if you can see the bigger picture, you can see how the fire burned and how the fire moved,” Gary told KOIN 6 News.
Investigators believe the blaze started inside the boutique and burned out, so they’ve ruled out arson. However, the investigation is far from over.