Fire destroys multiple mobile homes in Okanogan County’s Elmer City

A fire tore through a mobile home park in Okanogan County’s Elmer City on Tuesday, destroying several homes and displacing multiple families.

Maurice Goodall, director of Okanogan County Emergency Management, said the 15-acre fire sparked in the afternoon at the Grandview Village mobile home park on the north end of the town, where it spread to six buildings, leveling four and damaging two. Four families were displaced and are staying with members of the Colville Tribe, he said.

The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at a local church, Goodall said, but nobody was using it as of Wednesday morning. The fire was extinguished Tuesday evening.

Ken McDowell, who lives in Elmer City and owns R-K Engineering near City Hall, said he drove by the park Wednesday morning and saw only emergency crews and smoke.

“Cops and firefighters were still there,” he said. “I didn’t see what burned.”

He said the whole town had been experiencing a power outage “for a few hours.”

According to Okanogan County Emergency Management, Nespelem Valley Electric had several downed power lines. The power services shut down power to the city Tuesday evening.