Fire District 3 extinguished a blaze in a multi-storied house in Sequim on Sept. 16.
All eight occupants of the house on Oak Court left it safely before firefighters arrived, said Fire Chief Ben Andrews in a press release.
Firefighters were dispatched at 7:28 p.m. for the fire in an upstairs bedroom. They put out the fire, confining it to the room of origin, Andrews said.
“Other than the fact that there was a fire, everything went right,” he said.
“The residents called 9-1-1 quickly. They evacuated everyone from the house. No one was hurt and the damage was limited,” he added.
The cause of fire was not reported.
Andrews noted that there were working smoke detectors and many of the rooms had their doors closed, which limited the amount of smoke and heat damage to the rooms adjacent to the room that was on fire.
The first engine arrived from the Sequim station at 7:33 p.m. with three firefighters who reported fire showing from the second floor.
The duty chief arrived one minute later and reported fire in 50 percent of the second floor, Andrews said.
Within three minutes of arriving, the officer had completed a 360-degree walk around the structure and water was applied to the fire through a window from the outside, the chief said.
“It is crucial that that first-arriving officer complete a size-up of the fire before committing crews to an offensive interior attack,” Andrews said.
“They have to have the full picture of the extent and condition of the fire as well as the safety concerns before committing a crew inside.”
Two minutes later, an offensive interior attack was initiated by the second arriving engine from Carlsborg.
The fire was extinguished, and a search of the house was for additional occupants was completed seven minutes later, Andrews said.
Since there were no fire hydrants nearby, water for the pumpers was supplied by water tenders from Sequim, Carlsborg and Blyn stations.
Two engines, three water tenders, a duty chief, two Olympic Ambulance units and 16 firefighters responded to the blaze.
