Bellingham crews battle two-alarm house fire near Walmart
Snowy, cold weather and call volume forced the Bellingham Fire Department to sound a second alarm to battle a house fire north of Walmart Tuesday evening.
The house suffered “significant” damage, Captain Dave Pethick told The Bellingham Herald, but nobody was injured in the blaze.
Crews were called to the 100 block of Thomas Road at approximately 5:30 p.m. Jan. 14, and Pethick said they arrived to find the house “pretty well involved.”
The second alarm was sounded at approximately 5:40 p.m., in part because the department had two CPR calls at the same time and crews were working on a longer rest cycle to allow them to warm up after being outside in the elements, Pethick said.
In addition to the snowy roads slowing response time, Pethick said water supply also was an issue at Tuesday’s fire. Crews had to lay approximately 1,000 feet of hose from Guide Meridian to battle the flames.
Damage from the fire made the home uninhabitable at the time, Pethick said, and Red Cross helped the family find shelter.
Pethick said he did not have an estimate for the amount of damages done or a cause for the fire, though he said there were no injuries to residents or firefighters, which included crews from Whatcom County Fire District 7.
A post by someone identifying themselves as a relative of the home’s residents on the Whatcom Incidents and News Facebook page said that the family has three dogs, and one got singed and one was burned a little, but all were alive.
