Firefighters responded Thursday night to a large fire at a double-wide mobile home in the Five Corners area, one that was the scene of an alleged attempted murder earlier this fall.
A report came in around 7:30 p.m. of a fire near Northeast 79th Street and Northeast 103rd Avenue, south of Padden Parkway. Responders narrowed it down to a mobile home on a cul de sac at 8102 N.E. 103rd Court.
Vancouver Fire Department spokesman Mark Johnson said firefighters arrived to find flames leaping from the four-bedroom, roughly 1,700-square-foot home’s roof and porch.
Firefighters began spraying water from the outside, then worked their way inside when the fire died down about 20 minutes later. Johnson said firefighters cut through the walls and ceiling to look for lingering flames.
“I’m sure the damage is going to be extensive,” he said.
Johnson said there were no reports of injuries, and the Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office will handle the investigation into the fire’s cause.
The house was connected to an early October attempted murder investigation that led to a police pursuit and suicide in Oregon.
Court records say Andrew Garrette DeHart, 36, and an alleged accomplice, Michael Anthony Conley, lured Patrick Lenhart to the house on Oct. 8 under the pretense of a drug deal. There, DeHart tied up Lenhart and threatened to “blow off his head” with a rifle, court records say. Conley was accused of stabbing Lenhart multiple times.
Investigators think the stabbing was connected to threats made against a friend of Lenhart’s who was scheduled to testify in an upcoming criminal trial. The alleged victim there told police Conley and DeHart had threatened her and told her she needed to recant her story about what she had witnessed, court records said.
Conley was arrested Oct. 9 and is awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, assault and witness intimidation in connection with the case. U.S. Marshals spotted DeHart in Seaside, Ore., on Oct. 28. He led police on a vehicle chase along Highway 26. Police said he shot at officers from his truck. Police returned fire as his truck left a tunnel near Forest Grove, ending the chase. DeHart died by suicide, officials said.