Firefighters douse blaze at abandoned house in Battle Ground

Firefighters quickly doused a fire that consumed an abandoned house in Battle Ground Friday morning.

Crews from Clark County Fire & Rescue responded to the house, located on the corner of North Parkway Avenue and Northeast Sixth Street, at 5:15 a.m.

Arriving firefighters found 30-foot-high flames coming out of the windows and roof.

“It was pretty impressive,” said Tim Dawdy, the agency’s spokesman.

Firefighters first used water to doused the flames from outside the structure before entering.

“We had to check to see if any transients or children were inside,” Dawdy said. No one was inside the structure and the fire was suppressed within 30 minutes.

Dawdy said that fires at abandoned houses can be especially dangerous from a firefighter’s perspective. Because they often have open windows and doors, allowing oxygen in to feed the fire. Unmaintained houses can also present dangerous situations for firefighters entering the structure, such as unsafe floor boards, Dawdy said.

Though the official cause of the fire will be determined by the Clark County Fire Marshal, Dawdy said that the circumstances point to a fire being set as a likely scenario.

“It’s always suspicious when there’s no electrical power going to house,” Dawdy said. “The chance of it being human-caused is much greater in an abandoned building.”