BRIER – A green parrot and a three-legged dog were killed Friday morning in a house fire east of Brier.
A baseboard heater ignited a sofa, causing more than $325,000 in damage and displacing four people, two surviving dogs, six cats and a ferret, officials said.
The fire was reported by a neighbor just before 10 a.m. in the 1000 block of Crawford Road near Hilltop Elementary, Fire District 1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said.
Crews from a station about a block away arrived to find one end of the house fully engulfed in flames.
Firefighters put the blaze out in about 15 minutes, she said.
A good Samaritan helped an elderly grandmother out of the burning home. She had run back into the house to try to rescue the bird, which had been trained to talk, Hynes said.
Snohomish County fire marshals determined the blaze started because a sofa was pushed up against a baseboard heater, Hynes said.
The homeowner believed the heater was turned off, she said.
“The thing with baseboard heaters is that lots of them don’t turn all the way off,” Hynes said. “Once temperatures dip below a certain point, they automatically come back on. People should be aware that that can happen … You need to keep combustibles away from baseboard heaters.”
Snohomish County Red Cross and Support 7 are providing assistance to the displaced family.
Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.
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