By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM – A serious fire at a mobile home in Sequim Tuesday night left a man suffering with burns over 50% of his body and fire investigators unsure about the cause of the blaze.
District 3 firefighters were dispatched around 9:30 pm to a structure fire in the 900 block of S. 3rd Avenue. That location also dispatches units from Carlsborg and Blyn.
Callers on the scene reported hearing explosions coming from the fire and also told dispatchers that the occupant of the house had gotten himself out but was severely burned.
A helicopter was immediately summoned from LifeFlight and the man was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center for treatment.
District 3 Assistant Chief Dan Orr describes the effort to put out the blaze as “hard-fought” and says it took about an hour and a half to extinguish.
Orr says investigators spent the day looking into what caused the fire.
“It is kind of non-conclusive. So the some of the things that we do know from the investigation; It appears accidental. It appears that it was a gentleman who was in the home by himself. It appears that he was a very heavy smoker. And so there’s remnants of all of that through there. It appears that we have a pretty good idea of where the fire started, but we will probably never know the exact cause of the fire.”
As for the explosions some callers reported hearing, Orr says they were most likely caused by propane tanks or something similar.
(Fire District 3 photos)