PORT TOWNSEND — Three people were sent to the hospital by smoke inhalation and burns after a pre-dawn house fire broke out in the 4600 block of Holcomb Street early this morning.
Two men and a woman were stabilized at Jefferson Healthcare Hospital and transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious smoke inhalation and burn injuries, said Bill Beezley, spokesman for East Jefferson Fire Rescue.
A fourth occupant of the house, a teenage boy, was not injured.
Names of those in the home at the time of the fire have not been released, and conditions of those injured were not yet available this morning.
Firefighters from East Jefferson Fire Rescue and Naval Magazine Indian Island were dispatched to the fire at 4:51 a.m., Beezley said.
On arrival, firefighters found the house fully in flames, and the house’s occupants sheltered in a Port Townsend Police Department cruiser, he said.
According to Beezley, the teenager said the occupants of the house lit candles during a power outage late Sunday, and he was unsure if all of the candles had been extinguished.
The teenager told fire investigators that he awoke shortly before 5 a.m. to the sound of shattering glass as another occupant broke windows to escape.
The three adult occupants and the teenager were able to escape, but all three adults suffered smoke inhalation and the two men also received burns, Beezley said..
Firefighters knocked down the flames in about 20 minutes, but the single-story home was severely damaged by then, he said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
