CAMANO ISLAND — A house fire in the Rocky Point neighborhood left a woman dead and injured her adult son early Sunday morning, neighbors and authorities said.
Neighbors woke up before 3 a.m. to the sight of towering flames and the sound of exploding propane and fuel cylinders coming from the
two-story house on Gladstone Drive near Brokaw Road.
“You could just hear the snapping and crackling,” said Bob Lindsey, whose house overlooks the scene.
He awoke to see what looked like a small fire start to spread quickly. Soon, flames appeared to be shooting 30 or 40 feet into the air.
The fire occurred in a normally tranquil, hillside neighborhood with views of Saratoga Passage and Whidbey Island.
The Island County Sheriff’s Office was conducting the investigation into the cause of the fire and expected to have more information after receiving the results of the coroner’s report and forensic testing.
By the time crews from Camano Island Fire and Rescue arrived, “We had a fully involved residential structure fire,” Assistant Fire Chief Levon Yengoyan said. Six fire engines, three tender trucks and several other fire department vehicles responded.
Crews worked hard to prevent flames from spreading beyond the house where the fire started, Yengoyan said.
The fire did, however, singe the side of a neighbor’s house.
The assistant chief confirmed that one person died and that a man was treated for smoke inhalation, though his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. Nobody else was inside, he said.
Neighbors said the person who was killed was a woman who uses a wheelchair. They said she was a long-time resident of the neighborhood who was well-liked and enjoyed making pottery. Widowed, she lived at the house with her grown son, neighbors said.
Lindsey said he used to live next door to her before he moved to his current house on the next street over.
“She was a nice person,” he said. “She had a lot of friends, a lot of friends.”
Roberta Spring, 48, who lives on nearby Flintstone Drive, recalled the woman feeding several dozen pigeons every morning.
On Sunday, Spring said the birds returned as usual and circled above: “I noticed that the pigeons are still flying around looking for her.”
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