The VRFA’s busy night: two fires, same vacant house

Two fires in one night in the same vacant house in southwest Auburn prompted twin quick responses from the Valley Regional Fire Authority on Jan. 18.

No one was hurt in either fire.

Here is how events unfolded, according to Kimberly Terhune, Public Information Officer for the VRFA.

At 9:51 p.m., a neighbor called to report a possible fire in a house at the intersection of 2nd and A Streets Southwest. When Ladder 331 got there five minutes later, firefighters found and then put out a fire on the outside deck.

At 11:06 p.m., a neighbor and a passerby called 911 to report seeing smoke and flames leaving the same vacant house, and VRFA and South King Fire and Rescue units responded with three engines, a ladder truck and an aid unit.

The first unit on scene for this second incident saw smoke coming out from the eaves of the house and had to force a door to get in to the boarded-up structure. The majority of the fire was in the attic space and was extinguished within 40 minutes. Firefighters searched the house and found no one inside.

Terhune said the cause of the fires remains undetermined.