A fire that may have been kindled by a space heater destroyed a house Monday in La Center, according to Clark County Fire District 10.
Dispatchers received multiple calls about the fire early Monday morning after the initial call for service came in at 7:23 a.m. It would be about 10 hours later until the incident was over, said fire district assistant chief Gordon Brooks.
The home, located at 40400 N.E. Christensen Road, is as far as responders within the fire district can get from one of its stations, Brooks said. The initial unit arrived on scene in about 10 minutes, he said.
From the front of the home, responders didn’t see much to worry about. When they walked around to its backside, they spotted flames shooting out of sliding glass doors of a walk-away basement, Brooks said.
The home’s two occupants made it out of the home uninjured, he said.
At least four other agencies responded to help the volunteer fire department, Brooks said, with Clark County Fire & Rescue carrying the majority of the response.
Firefighters started an offensive attack on the fire, going into the home to try and stop its spread, but tactics shifted to a more defensive approach. The responders began to douse the structure from the outside once the severity of the fire became apparent, according to the assistant chief.
“There was no way we were going to save the house at that point,” he said.
The fire was completely extinguished after six hours; most of the work consisted of cleaning up the scene, Brooks said.
A fire marshal concluded the source of the fire as undetermined, but fire officials are fairly certain a space heater was involved.
Brooks said residents should not leave the heaters unattended, and should not place them near flammable materials or stack items on top of them.
The home was declared a total loss. Brooks said the two residents declined help from a disaster relief agency.
