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Firefighters battle floating house fire north of Vancouver

Several homes damaged or destroyed at Kadow's Marina

By Stevie Mathieu, Columbian Assistant Metro Editor
Published: September 20, 2015, 11:06pm

Fire investigators will be at the scene today of a fire that destroyed two floating homes along the Columbia River west of Vancouver. A third home was damaged.

The fire was at Kadow’s Caterpillar Island Marina off Lower River Road.

The two-alarm fire was reported at about 10:35 p.m. at the north side of the marina, 10612 N.W. Lower River Road. One 911 caller reported seeing 14-foot flames coming out of the floating home. All occupants reportedly were out of the home that initially caught fire, according to radio traffic.

Firefighters started attacking the fire from outside of the structures, focusing on preventing the blaze from spreading as they waited for water tanker trucks to arrive, according to radio traffic. Firefighters also had to stay away from power lines near the waterway until the power to those lines could be turned off.

Clark County Fire District 6, the Vancouver Fire Department and Portland firefighters responded, according to a Fire District 6 Facebook post.

“Power lines, slippery docks, limited water supply and heavy fire conditions have crews working extra hard,” the post stated.

The fire reportedly left some residents stranded in part of the marina, and the plan was to taxi them to shore by boat, according to radio traffic. Complicating matters, about five residents at one point reportedly refused to leave their homes behind. One citizen reportedly took to a private boat and tried to fight the fire with a personal water pump.

The American Red Cross assisted two adults and a dog who were displaced.

Sunday was a bad day for fires in Clark County. Earlier, in the day, a home along Evergreen Highway was destroyed, as was a home in the Camas-Washougal area.

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Columbian Assistant Metro Editor