Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Derek Hall of McClane Fire District 9 pets the family cat outside a travel trailer where two children died in a fire early Monday morning.

Trailer fire kills two

Children killed, parents injured in rural blaze

MICHAEL BURNHAM, THE OLYMPIAN

THURSTON COUNTY -- Two young children died and their parents were injured early Monday when their travel trailer caught fire 10 miles west of Olympia.

Four rural county fire departments and two medical units from Olympia Fire Department arrived at the 2200 block of Maple Valley Road shortly before 4 a.m.

A 20-foot-long Airstream trailer parked on the residential lot was engulfed in flames.

Firefighters recovered the bodies of 2-year-old Belledonna Sandstrom and 2-month-old Jean Sandstrom from the trailer.

"As far as we know, they died from the fires ... smoke inhalation or burns," said McLane Fire Department Assistant Chief Tedd Hendershot.

The Thurston County Coroner will perform autopsies today, said Mike Patti, chief deputy state fire marshal.

The parents were outside of the trailer when emergency vehicles arrived.

The father, Chester Sandstrom, inhaled hot gases and smoke, suffered burns to his face and arms and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Hendershot said.

The mother, Christina Sandstrom, suffered respiratory injuries and burns to her arms and was transported to Harborview by vehicle, Patti said.

The father was in serious condition, and the mother was in satisfactory condition late Monday morning, a Harborview nursing supervisor said.

Christina Sandstrom apparently woke up to the smell of acrid smoke and may have alerted her mother-in-law in the property's adjacent house, Hendershot said.

The mother-in-law dialed 9-1-1, and emergency vehicles were dispatched to the blaze at 3:39 a.m.

After travelling along rural roads caked with snow and ice, Hendershot said, the first firefighters arrived at the blaze at 3:50 a.m.

"A response time of 11 minutes isn't bad in this kind of weather," Hendershot said.

"The weather conditions were a factor in the department's response," Patti added.

The family had been living in the trailer.

The cause of the fire had not been determined by 10:30 a.m.

Thurston County fire officials and the Office of the State Fire Marshal are investigating the incident.

"If they had working smoke detectors, they probably would have survived," Hendershot said.

"Smoke detectors do save lives."

Michael Burnham writes for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-704-6869.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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