UPDATE: APD Provides Details on a Pair of Serious Traffic Incidents From the Past 24 Hours

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As first reported on the Mad River Union’s Facebook page, this morning, just after 2 a.m., a driver lost control of their vehicle in the Bayside area, plowing through fences and power poles before driving straight into the Bayside Grange.

The Union reports that the driver was killed in the crash. Scanner traffic from the time indicates that rescuers on scene shortly after the crash attempted to resuscitate the driver, but gave up the effort.

The extent of the structural damage to the Grange is still unknown, but the building has been deemed unsafe for the time being.

Arcata police are at the scene, and the building has been taped off.

The calls first came into the dispatch center at around 2:15 a.m., with several people in the neighborhood reporting a loud “boom,” or explosion. 

The crash took out power to the Bayside and Sunny Brae areas. It’s still off as of this writing.