Dog rescued from burning house on city’s west side

Firefighters have rescued a dog from a burning home in the extreme northwest corner of Vancouver. It was the second house fire today on the metro area’s west side.

This fire is at 6407 N.W. Cherry St., in the extreme northwest corner of the Vancouver city limits. Fire District 6, which has the closest station, is on the scene along with the Vancouver Fire Department.

Here’s what happened, according to firefighters and witnesses at the scene: Two neighbors, one an off-duty Portland firefighter, noticed smoke and flames coming from the electric meter box on the split-level home and called the fire department at 2:11 p.m.

Firefighters arrived to find a working electrical fire, with flames damaging the siding of the garage. No one was home except for the dog, who was rescued. Firefighters waited for Clark Public Utilities to disconnect the power, then attacked the fire from inside and outside the garage. It was quickly brought under control.

There was obvious damage to some of the siding outside the garage, but the flames apparently did not spread into the living space above the garage. There is smoke damage to the home, firefighters said.

The same fire units earlier Thursday had battled a house fire less than a mile north, at 6914 N.W. Anderson Ave. That fire was in a basement, and caused extensive smoke and other damage to the home.

The homeowners are Jim and Susan Maxwell, according to county property records.