4 People Escape From House Fire on 81st Avenue West

Four people safely escaped a fire that destroyed a home in Edmonds early this morning.

A married couple, their adult son and a house guest were asleep when a smoke alarm sounded and alerted them to the fire just before 3 a.m.

The single-story house in the 20000 block of 81st Ave. W. in the Maplewood neighborhood was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, according to Leslie Hynes, public information officer for Snohomish County Fire District 1, which provides fire and emergency medical service to the City of Edmonds.

The family escaped with a dog and a cat, but another dog is missing.

Firefighters from Fire District 1 and Lynnwood responded and had the fire under control within 25 minutes. No one was injured.

Firefighters expect to be on the scene throughout the morning extinguishing hot spots. The house is so heavily damaged that fire investigators have been unable to enter the structure. They are waiting until daylight to get a better look at the fire scene to try to determine where and how the fire started.

The homeowner and the family that rents the house have insurance. Support 7 and Red Cross are providing assistance. Preliminary loss estimate is $250,000.

“A house fire at this time of the morning when everyone is asleep could very easily have resulted in a loss of life, but the smoke alarms did their job. They alerted the occupants in time so they could make a safe escape,” Hynes said.

Firefighters offer these smoke alarm tips:

• Test alarms at least monthly by pushing the test button.
• Replace batteries in smoke alarms twice a year. An easy way to remember is to change the batteries when you change your clocks to or from Daylight Savings Time.  If an alarm “chirps,” warning the battery is low, replace the battery right away.
• Replace all smoke alarms, including alarms that use 10-year batteries and hard-wired alarms, when they are 10 years old or sooner if they do not respond properly.