Camas house fire put out quickly, minimizing damage

A Camas family detected a fire minutes before it spread to the attic late Thursday, making the damage to the structure minimal.

Firefighters were called to 1531 N.W. Sixth Place at about 9:30 p.m. after a fire in the fireplace smoked up the house.

“They were without power for a couple of days and using fireplace for heat,” Camas-Washougal Deputy Fire Marshal Randy Miller said. “There was some deterioration in the mortar on the back side of the fireplace that caught the back wall on fire.”

Miller said that a son in the family came home to find the smoke, alerting family and calling 911 just in time.

He said firefighters caught the blaze “within a minute or so of that fire breaking into the attic.”

The damage from the fire was an estimated $20,000.

Had anything been delayed, Miller said, “it would have been a totally different event for both the home owner and the fire department.”