PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles woman lost two of her three dogs after her house in Gales Addition caught fire.
Firefighters reunited Sandy Fearn with her Chihuahua Misty after the fire, but her Chihuahua Gigi and Norwegianhound Pixie died in the Wednesday evening blaze, her son Jimmy Fearn said Thursday.
“She’s holding everything in,” he said. “She’s all right for now, but it takes my family a little longer for things to hit.”
He is housing his mother until she’s able to get back on her feet, he said, adding that his job is to do everything hecan to support her.
“I have to be the strong one for my mom,” he said. “It’s my job as her son.”
Firefighters were unsure what started the fire, which was reported at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday on the 200 block of NorthCarne Street, said Mike DeRousie, assistant chief of Clallam Fire District No. 2.
No one was home when it started.
When firefighters arrived, they found smoke and fire coming from the north side of the home from the kitchen area.
“It was starting to spread down to the grass,” DeRousie said. “It came inches from a neighbor’s house.”
He said the neighbor used a garden hose to prevent the fire from spreading until firefighters arrived.
DeRousie said the fire was knocked down “instantly” when firefighters attacked the blaze.
While firefighters were extinguishing the fire, they were told three dogs were in the house.
They found one dog alive and attempted to resuscitate another, but it was overcome with smoke, DeRousie said.
The other dog died in the blaze, he said.
He said that because of the heat, firefighters had to take breaks frequently while overhauling the home.
Though the heat Wednesday didn’t make it any easier to fight the blaze, DeRousie said one of the biggest challengeswas the crowd that was taking photos and filming the fire.
“We had to move cars and move the crowd back so we could fight the fire,” he said. “We had a problem as far aspeople pulling up in cars, taking pictures, and had an issue with not being able to get the engines in.”
DeRousie said people who meant well had driven to the fire station to let firefighters know about the fire.
However, they parked in front of the doors and blocked the fire engines from getting out as quickly as possible, hesaid.
“We had to ask them to move their cars so we could leave,” he said.
DeRousie said he was surprised that the fire was extinguished so quickly; typically, older mobile homes burn quickand hot.
The home still faced extensive damage, with flame damage in the kitchen and on the deck. Smoke damage wasfound throughout the house.
“This is the first time in 33 years we’ve had a mobile home fire with this little damage to it,” DeRousie said. “We werelucky that we were close enough and we put water on fast enough to minimize damage.”
The fire district responded with three engines, a medic unit, a command vehicle and 15 firefighters.
DeRousie said the home was uninsured.
A GoFundMe account to raise funds to remove the mobile home and put in another is atwww.gofundme.com/r64dkz-home-fire-lost-everything.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
Firefighters from Clallam Fire District No. 2 were able to save one dog from a residential fire Wednesday night. Two others were overcome by smoke inhalation. (Jay Cline/Clallam Fire District No. 2)
A mobile home at 206 N. Carne St. incurred extensive damage in a fire Wednesday evening. Two dogs perished but a third was saved by firefighters. (Jay Cline/Clallam Fire District No. 2)
