Three people displaced in Mukilteo apartment fire

Published 11:13 pm Thursday, November 26, 2009

MUKILTEO — Three people were homeless Thursday night after a fire damaged their apartment.

A passerby about 8 p.m. reported the fire in the 3200 block of 132nd Street SW just off the Mukilteo Speedway, Snohomish County Fire District 1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said.

Nobody was home at the time.

An investigator from the Snohomish County Fire Marshal’s Office determined the fire started because a sofa was too close to a baseboard heater. Damage was estimated at about $80,000.

Red Cross volunteers were called to help two men and a woman who lived at the apartment.

“This is the second fire we’ve responded to this week caused by combustibles placed too close to a heater,” Hynes said. “To prevent fires, keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from heating equipment.”