SEQUIM — A fire and apparent explosion destroyed a house on Chicken Coop Road east of Sequim early Sunday morning.
No one was seriously injured. The house, once a two-story structure, was reduced to a two-foot-tall smoking pile of rubble, said Roger Moeder, assistant chief of Clallam County Fire Protection District No. 3.
The fire was reported around 4:30 a.m. Sunday. There was one man staying in the house, which is located on the 1500 block of the rural road.
“He woke up to a pop that he heard from downstairs,” Moeder said. “He was on the second story. He opened the bedroom door and was met with a wall of smoke.”
The man escaped the house through a second-story window. There was a fire extinguisher on the first floor, Moeder said, but the occupant was unable to reach it.
Structure collapses
The house was in flames and already had collapsed by the time firefighters arrived. Units remained on the scene until about 7 a.m., when fire suppression efforts were called off.
The ruins were still smoking Monday morning.
The “pop” sound apparently was a propane tank exploding on the first floor. The tank reportedly was being used to fuel a cooking stove, the assistant chief said.
Fire district personnel have not determined the fire’s cause, although the house’s resident reported that he suspected that it might have started around a space heater he had plugged in on the first floor around 2 a.m.
“We did not dig into it,” Moeder said.
“We’re going to leave it for the insurance company.”
