Fire damages house in Vancouver’s Ogden neighborhood

Two people were displaced after officials say a fire in a wood stove spread and severely damaged a house Thursday in Vancouver’s Ogden neighborhood.

Firefighters were called to a single-story house, 7917 N.E. Royal St., just after 7 a.m. When crews arrived, they found smoke coming from every eave of the house, an indicator of an attic fire, Vancouver Fire Department Capt. Scott Willis said. Flames eventually broke through the roof, he said.

Two occupants and a dog were already outside of the residence, Willis said.

Twenty-one firefighters worked to attack the blaze from outside the structure for about 30 minutes until the fire was under control, Willis said. Crews stayed on scene for the next few hours to make sure that all the hot spots were out.

“Every couple of hours we’ll stop by to see if there’s any smoke,” Willis said.

Investigators determined that one of the occupants of the house had been using a wood stove in the garage to burn a large amount of cardboard, Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said.

“It just got so hot and the occupant, the renter, left the area for about 5 to 10 minutes,” Scarpelli said. “It just got away instantly due to the magnitude of what was being burned.”

Damage from the fire totaled an estimated $300,000, Scarpelli said, with $180,000 of the damage to the structure and $120,000 damage to the contents of the house.

“Unfortunately, the renter does not have insurance,” Scarpelli said. “It’s a big loss.”

Scarpelli said that unintentional fires like these are preventable. Natural, untreated wood should be used in wood stoves, she said.

American Red Cross volunteers responded to the scene to assist the two people displaced.