PORT TOWNSEND — A homeless man who was fixing up a house in exchange for a place to stay is without a home again after a Tuesday morning fire.
The resident was not home when the fire broke out shortly before 11:50 a.m. in the manufactured home in the Olympic Mobile Home Village near state Highway 20 and Four Corners Road.
No one was hurt. The home was left with extensive smoke damage, as well as holes in the roof from firefighters’ attempts to ventilate the fire.
East Jefferson Fire-Rescue spokesman Bill Beezley — who would not identify the man, citing department policy — said that the Olympic Peninsula Chapter of the American Red Cross would house the resident for two to three days.
Beezley said the cause of the fire was under investigation, but that “it was not of suspicious origin.”
Firefighters found flames engulfing the garage, and battled the blaze both from outside the garage and inside the main house.
The damage was limited to the garage and one external wall of the house.
The fire was reported by a passerby, who at first wondered why someone was grilling inside the garage, Beezley said.
The house was owned by the owners of the mobile home park, Beezley said.
They had made the house available to the man, who had been living in his car, in exchange for his assistance in making small repairs to the flooring and ceiling, Beezley said.
One of the owners told the fire department that there had been no structure fire within the complex in the 32 years they had owned it, the fire department spokesman said.
However, about two years ago, they asked the Jefferson County Public Utility District to install three fire hydrants in the mobile home complex.
“The hydrants proved valuable in limiting the damage from the blaze,” Beezley said.
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Jefferson County reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
