PORT ANGELES — An overnight fire destroyed three homes and years’ worth of memories at Welcome Inn Trailer Park early Saturday.
The manufactured homes at the western edge of the park, 1215 W. U.S. Highway 101, burned to a pile of blackened rubble and took 17 firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
Though some of the occupants were asleep when the fire broke out, no one was injured.
“Everyone got out, and that’s the most important thing,” Welcome Inn manager Sharon Ingwersen said Saturday afternoon.
The fire’s cause is still under investigation, but it apparently originated in the kitchen and laundry area of the home at space 16, occupied by Steve Young, Port Angeles Fire Marshal Ken Dubuc said.
Awakened by heat
Young was awakened by extreme heat coming from the kitchen area and managed to escape, Dubuc said.
Ingwersen called 9-1-1 and reported the fire at about 12:45 a.m. after she woke up and saw flames shooting straight up out of Young’s home, she said.
She called a second time when the fire spread to a neighboring home.
Two men tried to use garden hoses to fight the flames, she said.
Ingwersen’s husband, Ron, said they knocked on doors and evacuated the whole section of the park in case the blaze spread further.
When firefighters arrived, heavy flames and smoke were coming from Young’s home and space 15 next door, Dubuc said.
Flames were also threatening two other homes at spaces 15A and 17, Dubuc reported.
