PORT HADLOCK — A firefighter was airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center on Saturday after a blaze gutted a small office building off Rhody Drive.
East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokesman Bill Beezley declined to name the 43-year-old volunteer but said he was listed in stable condition Sunday.
Beezley would not say what happened to the firefighter, only that he experienced a “medical event” while supporting the work at the scene. He was treated there by EMTs before being flown to Harborview.
Fire crews continued to investigate the cause of the blaze in the 20 block of Colwell Street, but Beezley said its origin is not believed to be suspicious.
Firefighters were called to the 1,500-square-foot office space, part of a larger group of connected buildings separated by firewalls, at 3:12 p.m. Saturday and arrived to find smoke and flames coming from
window openings.
Crews broke down the door and attacked the fire from the inside, Beezley said, extinguishing the blaze in about 30 minutes.
“[The structure] suffered heavy internal damage and will probably have to be gutted down to the studs,” Beezley said.
The fire was contained to the office space and did not spread to adjoining buildings, Beezley added.
“The firewalls did their job,” he said.
The owner of the buildings had left about an hour before the fire was reported and came back to find the structure in flames, Beezley said.
Three fire engines and roughly 18 firefighters from East Jefferson Fire-Rescue, Port Ludlow Fire and Rescue and Naval Magazine Indian Island responded to the fire.
