Four adults were displaced after a fast-spreading fire destroyed a house in Vancouver’s Meadow Homes neighborhood Tuesday morning.
The first 911 call came in as a fire in a room at a house, 5012 Murray Court, just before 10:30 a.m., Vancouver Fire Department Battalion Chief Rick Steele said. With firefighters on their way, several neighbors also called 911 to report that they could see the blaze, Steele said.
“That pretty much tells us that this fire took off really fast,” Steele said.
Arriving firefighters saw a plume of smoke from East 18th Street and turned onto Murray Court, a dead-end street just south of 18th, to see 75 percent of the house on fire, Steele said.
Crews doused the blaze with water from outside the house, putting out the flames within 20 minutes, Steele said. Only two of the house’s occupants were accounted for at first, so firefighters searched the residence and later learned that the other two occupants were not at home, Steele said.
Emergency personnel blocked traffic on 18th Street from Carlson Road to General Anderson Avenue for the fire response.
Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said heat from a portable space heater ignited flammable material near the device.
Calls to fires sparked by space heaters spike in the cold months, she said. At a minimum, the heaters should be placed 3 feet from flammable material, but depending on the design, they may need up to 5 feet of room to stay safe, she said.
“The larger the unit, the higher amount of heating output, it’s going to require more space,” she said.
She also recommended staying in the room when using a space heater.
“They’re meant as portable devices, not permanent sources of heat,” she said.
Scarpelli said the house was a total loss, and the fire did an estimated $189,000 in damage to the structure and $142,000 to its contents.
The home was a rental, she said, and the occupants did not have renters insurance. No one was hurt.
The American Red Cross responded to assist the family that was displaced by the blaze, providing the residents with basic immediate needs, information about recovery services and health resources.
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Correction appended: This post originally conflated the estimated cost of damage done to the structure and contents following the fire, and has been corrected.
