This year’s National Night Out event seems to have extra meaning following the May 22 break-in at the Brady Fire Station, especially after Grays Harbor County Undersheriff David Pimentel told The Vidette July 26 about the arrest of two suspects in the case.
“We have made two arrests in the Brady Fire Department burglary,” he said. “Both suspects are males; a 27-year-old Mason County resident and a 23-year-old Montesano resident.”
Pimentel said the Mason County suspect provided a full confession to the crime, “but we have not been able to locate any of the stolen property and we are no longer getting any cooperation from the suspects.”
“The break-in was unfortunate that somebody would take tools and equipment that are essential for responders to do their jobs,” Fire Chief Leonard Johnson said. “The community has been very supportive of the Fire District and has stepped up.”
Johnson has a message this year for the community: “Thank you for doing what you’re doing.”
The burglary resulted in the loss of public safety equipment, including portable radios, an automatic external defibrillator, a thermal imaging camera, and saws and other tools.
”We’ve replaced all but the portable radios at this point. We started replacing equipment within two days of the burglary. We just received some of the final stuff last week. We made sure that there wasn’t any gap in coverage following the burglary,” Johnson said. “We moved equipment around and got some help. The community was never under protected.”
A $1,500 reward still is offered for information that leads to the recovery of the equipment stolen, Johnson said.
“The Sheriff’s Office and the Fire District have an outstanding working relationship and we appreciate everything they’ve done (with this case),” said Johnson.
Grays Harbor Fire District 2 will host National Night Out events at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 7, at its Brady station and at Central Park Elementary. Community watch groups and the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office will have people at both locations.
“Most of it is going to be focused on getting the kids to meet firefighters and law enforcement people,” Johnson said. “We want to educate people that they are the best deterrent to crime in the community.”
There also will be entertainment.
“I’m told that the dunk tank is coming around, and Undersheriff Pimentel has made it pretty clear that I get to participate in that,” said Johnson.
“I encourage everybody to come out and meet the people who are helping them in the community. And I hope they get the educational material about how to reduce crime and prevent fires. We will have some information this year on what’s called ‘interface fires,’ where wildland fires meet structures. We’d like the community to be prepared for those. We don’t see any letup in the dry, warm weather. So we hope people will be careful with fire.”
Night Out events
Montesano
Fleet Park will be the site of a community barbecue and ice cream feed at 6 p.m.
Elma
Fire District 5, and the Elma fire and police departments will host an event from 6-8 p.m. with free burgers, hot dogs and ice cream, face painting and activities for all ages at 10th Street Park. Safety and security exhibits and demonstrations will be included.
