LUMMI RESERVATION — A house fire on MacKenzie Road left an elderly man without his home Tuesday morning, Nov. 20.

Lummi elder Lawrence Tom Sr., who is in his 80s, left the doublewide mobile home at 2523 MacKenzie St. just after 8 a.m. Nobody was inside an hour later, when neighbors saw flames shooting through the roof in the kitchen area of the home.

Edward LaClair was working on a boat across the street at 9:20 a.m. He heard yelling and ran out to the driveway. Strips of the roof were burning away and plumes of smoke were rising from the red and white house.

“When all that smoke came pouring out of there, you could tell it was pretty bad,” Laclair said. “We’re just grateful that he wasn’t home today.”

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

The structure was left standing. From the outside, only the broken windows, a few charred blotches on the walls and the lingering smell of smoke were left as evidence of the fire.

But inside the house was blackened and gutted. Whatcom County Fire District 8 Chief Dean Whitney called it a total loss. Firefighters pulled soot-covered picture frames from the walls and set them upright on a porch.

Tom had lived at the home for at least a decade. According to the county assessor, the house was worth about $100,000.

Reach Caleb Hutton at caleb.hutton@bellinghamherald.com or call 360-715-2276.