SNOHOMISH – A laundry room and crawl space of a home were damaged by fire Thursday in the 4900 block of 139th Avenue SE, fire officials said.

The fire broke out just after 1 p.m. No one was home at the time. Fire crews from Snohomish, Monroe and Lake Stevens kept the fire confined to the laundry room and the crawlspace under the house.

Fire officials continue to investigate the cause of the fire.

Machias: School gun traced to Pierce County

A loaded gun that was found by two students at Machias Elementary School has been traced to a Pierce County woman.

The .32-caliber handgun was not reported stolen. A check of state Department of Licensing records indicated that the gun is registered to a 28-year-old woman from Lakewood, southwest of Tacoma. Officers checked her home but were told she no longer lives there. Her whereabouts were unknown Thursday.

Two grade-school boys found the gun Monday near a swing set during recess. The boys never touched the gun, and told a teacher, who called Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies.

Everett: Man charged with raping stranger

A south Everett man was charged Thursday with first-degree rape for allegedly sneaking into a stranger’s apartment, holding a knife to her throat and sexually assaulting her.

Alionso Ruiz Rosales, 32, is scheduled to appear in Snohomish County Superior Court Sept. 27.

The victim told police that a man climbed through an open apartment window July 18 and threatened to harm her children if she didn’t have sex with him, deputy prosecutor Matt Baldock said.

She tried to stall by telling him she had to use the bathroom. She briefly turned on the light and recognized Rosales as someone she had seen in the apartment complex, Baldock said.

From Herald staff reports