LYLE — In the middle of the night on July 18, Lyle was under evacuation orders as Charlie Deach dug a fire line to protect the town’s 136-year-old Columbia Grange Hall from flames that crawled across Klickitat County.

Deach’s family has lived in the county for generations. His great-grandfather likely went to the same Grange where Deach, 76, now serves as president.

That night, Deach had one thought: “I can’t live with myself if I don’t do something to save that Grange.”

The Burdoin wildfire — which destroyed 44 buildings and scorched 11,000 acres before it was contained earlier this month — began earlier that day. In the middle of the flames sat the Columbia Grange, a gathering space for farmers and rural residents since 1889 , the year Washington gained statehood. It’s the oldest Gr

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