PORT ANGELES — A two-story wooden home burned to the ground Thursday afternoon in a fire so hot it spread to nearby trees, seared the grass of a lawn across the street and threatened the next-door neighbor’s home.
No one was injured in the blaze at 21 Whispering Firs Road off Lower Elwha Road west of Port Angeles.
The homeowner, Carol Sanford, was left homeless, with everything she owned burned except for her car which was towed to safety by her neighbors, said Assistant Chief Mike DeRousie.
The cause of the fire, which began upstairs, is unknown, DeRousie said, adding that the department will assist insurance inspectors in determining what started the blaze.
“It’s not suspicious,” he said.
Upon arrival at 4:56 p.m., Clallam County Fire Department 2 firefighters found the single-family home engulfed in flames, spewing intense heat that was igniting nearby trees and other vegetation, and threatening the next-door neighbor’s home and vehicle, DeRousie said.
“It was so hot that across the street it caught the neighbor’s lawn on fire,” he said.
When firefighters arrived, “the neighbor’s house was starting to get dark on the side with the neighbor using a hose trying to keep it cool” and when three neighbors towed Sanford’s vehicle out of harm’s way, “it was so hot it melted the tow strap,” DeRousie said.
Only the homeowner was living in the house, DeRousie said.
She discovered the fire while on the phone at her computer and tried to put it out with water, he added.
But the flames grew so large that she left the house and yelled for help. Neighbors called 9-1-1.
The American Red Cross of Olympic Peninsula helped her find lodging for the night, he said.
Whispering Firs Road is in a wooded area with homes on both sides of the road, and the burned home was in a cul-de-sac, DeRousie said.
“It could have been real bad,” he said.
When firefighters found the house engulfed in flames, “our main concern was to protect the neighbor’s house and not having a forest fire,” DeRousie said.
Using large diameter hose lines and a deck gun, firefighters cooled down the neighbor’s home, saving it and the vehicle from the fire and stopped the spread of a wildfire.
Firefighters “dumped a lot of water out there fast, over 15,000 gallons of water,” using a fire hydrant and three 3,000-gallon water tenders — one borrowed from the Joyce Fire District, DeRousie said.
The fire was extinguished by about 6:30 p.m.
Moping up took longer and firefighters left a tender overnight with a crew of two.
A small outbreak at about 5:30 this morning was put out and water sprinklers were set up to keep the area wet.
“It was so dry out there, we’re very fortunate that we haven’t had more fires in this area,” DeRousie said.
“Everyone’s doing a good job about being careful.”
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or at leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
