EVERETT — Jim McGaughey couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Flames were shooting from the roof of a townhouse complex across from the fire station — again.
McGaughey is a former deputy chief at Snohomish Fire District 1. Two days earlier, firefighters at the station spotted a blaze that gutted one of the units and left a woman with fatal injuries.
Investigators determined that fire was intentionally set.
This morning McGaughey came to the station about 6 a.m. to set up for his class. About 15 minutes later he spotted the flames. He raced to wake sleeping firefighters and alerted them to the blaze.
“I said ‘Man, it’s on fire again,’ and I went running down the hall,” McGaughey said.
Flames were shooting about 10 feet from the roof of one of the units, located on 124th Street SW. Fire crews quickly doused the fire.
Residents haven’t been staying there since Monday’s blaze, Fire District 1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes said. Firefighters searched inside and didn’t find anyone. No one was hurt.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known. An investigator with the Snohomish County Fire Marshal’s Office was on scene this morning trying to determine how the fire was started.
McGaughey was skeptical that the fire could have been sparked by an ember left behind from Monday’s blaze.
“It was bizarre because they did a thorough investigating and did a good job mopping up,” McGaughey said. “We’ll find out today.”
This morning’s fire was unsettling for neighbors, who are still reeling from Monday’s fatal blaze.
Thadius Gilder said he saw flames shooting from the unit next to the one that was damaged earlier in the week.
“The flames were really high, ” he said. “It makes me a little nervous. I think if it had been an ember left over it would have shown up before this.”
The woman who was injured in Monday’s fire died Tuesday morning at a Seattle hospital. A man also was injured in that fire.
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