Fatal house fire in Amboy caused by space heater

A space heater in a bedroom is what sparked a fatal house fire Saturday in Amboy, according to the Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office. The homeowner and several pets died.

Firefighters responded at 8:19 a.m. to a fire at a house in the 13000 block of Northeast 406th Street. Someone reported that the owner had tried to douse the fire with a garden house before going back inside, according to Clark County Fire District 10 Capt. Tony Barnes.

The house was at the end of a long private road with no fire hydrant, Barnes said in a press release.

The blaze grew so large that Fire District 10 asked for help from Clark County Fire District 13 in Yacolt and Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue. It took 45 minutes of effort by six engines, three water tenders and 17 firefighters to bring the blaze under control.

When crews searched the house, they found the homeowner, a “large collection of exotic birds” and two dogs had died, according to the press release.

The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the homeowner’s identity or cause and manner of death.

Senior Deputy Fire Marshal Jason Knoble estimated the property and content loss to be more than $393,000 — not including the value of the rare birds, some of which he said the homeowner purchased for $75,000.