Cause of fatal fire is undetermined

The cause of a fire that killed an elderly couple in their home in Skamania County last week remains undetermined, a fire chief said Monday.

Clark County deputy fire marshals investigated the fire that destroyed the home of Gene and Corrine Farrell. Even the place where the fire began is unknown, said Chief Neal Sacon with the volunteer Mill-A Fire Department.

The fire in the home on Log Deck Road in Willard was reported about 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 21. When the first fire crews arrived, the two-story home was engulfed in flames and unsafe for firefighters to enter. Firefighters put water on the blaze but the house collapsed and was destroyed, Sacon said.

About 25 firefighters with Mill-A and the Underwood Fire Department worked at the blaze, Sacon said.

Willard is a close-knit one-time lumber milling community north of Cook in rural Skamania County.

Gene Farrell, age unavailable, was a retired foreman at one of the large lumber mills that once operated there, Sacon said. Gene and Corrine, 90, had several children and were well-known in the community of perhaps 100 families, many descended from folks who worked in big mills in the county, some of which have been closed for many years.

Sacon described the Farrells as “very welcoming” to local residents and children.

There was no indication the fire was suspicious, he said.