‘We are devastated’ by loss of two boys, family says

ARLINGTON — As smoke began to fill a Bryant-area home Friday night, adults scrambled to get the family out.

A college-aged daughter smelled smoke just before alarms started to sound. She went bedroom to bedroom on the second floor to wake people up.

Mark Lee was doing the same on the first floor.

As flames filled the home, Lee realized his 11-year-old foster son still was upstairs.

He called to the boy to follow him out but it was too late to save Kyler Grant Williams.

The flames also claimed the life of another foster child, Tyler Stevens Emory, 10.

“If our daughter hadn’t been home from college, probably no one in the family would have made it out of the house,” Mark Lee said Monday. “She was upstairs, heard the smoke detector go off and got most of the children awake and moving out of the house.”

Relatives and school officials identified the two boys Monday. The Snohomish County medical examiner has not released the results of their investigation.

Mark and Susan Lee, the foster parents who lost the two young boys, on Monday thanked the community for the outpouring of love and support they’ve received.

“They have wrapped their affection around our family and we are so grateful,” Mark Lee said in a brief press conference. “We are devastated by the loss of our two boys.”

The blaze started just before 11 p.m. Friday at the home in the 22800 block of 19th Drive NE. Fire officials determined a faulty outlet like sparked the blaze. They issued a preliminary ruling calling the fire accidental.

Fire and insurance investigators returned to the charred structure Monday.

Mark and Susan Lee explained what happened as the fire broke out in the home they were remodeling.

There were 10 people in the house when the fire erupted: the Lees, two other adults, including their 19-year-old daughter, and six children. Five of the children were the Lees’ foster sons.

Fire officials credit the smoke alarms and fast action of the family with saving eight lives, North County Fire Battalion Chief Christian Davis said.

On Monday, school districts in Arlington and Marysville had extra counselors at many schools to help students and teachers who knew the boys and their extended family.

Tyler had gone to Pioneer Elementary. He then transferred to the Marysville School District where attended Quil Ceda Elementary on the Tulalip Reservation from September until earlier this month, said Gail Miller, assistant superintendent of the Marysville School District.

“Any time we tragically lose a student we feel a tremendous loss and will hold the family close in our hearts at this sad time,” said David McKellar, the principal at Quil Ceda.

Tyler is the second Quil Ceda student to die in November. First-grader Stormy Peters died on Nov. 16, after her father shot her while cleaning a gun.

Tyler was to begin classes at Presidents Elementary. Kyler was a student at Post Middle School in Arlington.

Kyler’s biological mother, Lonnie Ostrup, 30, of Everett, said she is devastated.

“I am going through so many feelings and so many emotions,” she said.

Ostrup said her son has been in foster care for six years, something that happened because of her earlier scrapes with the law. Recently, she had frequent visits with him.

Kyler was a beautiful boy with a big smile, she said. He liked to say, “Mom, I love you to the moon,” she said.

She praised the Lee family for caring and loving her boy the past three years.

“They are mourning just like I am, like they lost one of their own. They were very good to him,” she said. “I don’t blame them in any way.”

Susan Lee is licensed in foster care by both the state and Compass Health, which provides social services to foster children. She has worked with special-needs children for the past 10 years, according to a family statement released early Monday.

Mark Lee is a juvenile community corrections officer supervisor with Snoho­mish County Superior Court in Everett.

“What the Lees do is really special,” Compass Health CEO Tom Sebastian said.

The couple took in children with special needs, he said. These children often struggle with a range of behavioral health issues. Some have been institutionalized and often participate in special education, Sebastian said.

Sebastian declined to discuss the boys who died, citing privacy laws.

Because of the high level of care, each child requires his or her own bedroom, Mark Lee said. That’s why the couple had moved from Mukilteo to Arlington to find a house they could expand and give the children room to run and play.

They were in the process of adding 2,000 square feet of living space and had hoped to finish before Christmas. They had wanted to welcome another foster child into the family in time for the holidays, the Lees said in the statement.

“Now that will have to wait,” the statement said.

The fast-moving fire completely destroyed the home and caused about $525,000 damage, officials said.

The boys’ rooms were directly above each other in the northwest corner of the 4,000-square-foot house. Officials believe the fire started in the south end of the home.

Mark Lee said the family plans to rebuild, but is now grappling with the tragic loss.

“The children, my wife and I are coping as well as we can,” he said. “We are overwhelmed with grief for the loss of our sons and the destruction of our home. Now, we need time to grieve and start rebuilding our lives.”

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.