A fire destroyed an unoccupied, two-story home off Palo Alto Road south of Sequim on Wednesday, July 10.

Battalion Chief Elliott Jones said firefighters responded around 3 p.m. July 10 to the 500 block of Cascade View Drive off Palo Alto Road to a report of a small brush and fence fire.

While driving along U.S. Highway 101 crews saw a large column of black smoke above the hillside and arrived to discover a fully involved two-story home on fire. There was some initial confusion over the address, Jones said, as the 9-1-1 call came from a Diamond Point resident who spotted the fire from a telescope.

Firefighters worked defensively right away in an attempt to stop the flames, Jones said, and they requested mutual aid from the Department of Natural Resources as some embers started a brush fire about 500 yards away from the house.

DNR’s team of 11 firefighters worked to contain the approximate 300-feet-by-200-feet fire, Jones said.

While fighting the house fire, the roof collapsed about a half hour into fighting the fire, and later the second story collapsed into the first floor and an outer wall fell onto a classic car.

Three water tenders with a capacity of 3,000 gallons supplied water to fight the fire as the area did not have fire hydrants.

Olympic Ambulance and 23 fire district personnel responded to the fire with one firefighter treated for a minor burn.

About three hours into the incident, the homeowner arrived on scene to tell firefighters the home had been unoccupied for weeks and no one was home during the fire, Jones said.

Firefighters maintained a fire watch until 10:30 a.m. Thursday to ensure the fire was contained.

Mutual aid was requested from Clallam 2 Fire-Rescue and that all volunteer and available firefighters/medics report to their stations for any other incidents due to the resources needed to fight the fire.

The fire’s cause remains under investigation.

Photo by Paul Lang, CCFD3 A house is deemed a total loss after a fire erupted on July 10 off Palo Alto Road. Firefighters with Clallam County Fire District 3 and Department of Natural Resources fought the house fire and a brush fire.

Photo by Paul Lang, CCFD3/ A house is deemed a total loss after a fire erupted on July 10 off Palo Alto Road.