A house fire killed three dogs and displaced a family of four late Sunday in Battle Ground.
A report of an explosion in the garage sent firefighters to 2304 S.W. Sixth St., at about 10:30 p.m., Clark County Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Dawdy said.
Fire crews found flames coming from the garage and quickly attacked the blaze, stopping it from spreading to the inside of the house, Dawdy said.
Haley Fouts was asleep, along with her parents — Randel and Daneal Boardman — and Fouts’ 3-year-old son when her mother got up to quiet their four Chihuahua mixes, which had started barking.
“My dad thought that he smelled something funny when she opened the door, so he went out and opened the door to the garage and smoke just came billowing into the hallway,” Fouts, who is nine months pregnant, said Monday.
He yelled to get out of the house, and her mother climbed through a window into the backyard. Fouts said her mother came around to her room and removed a window screen, then she handed her mother her boy through the window.
Barefoot, they walked to their neighbor’s property.
“The rest of the time we just kind of spent trying not to look back,” she said.
Dawdy said that fire crews, using pet resuscitation equipment, fought aggressively to save three dogs found inside the house, but the pets died. Fouts said Monday night their fourth dog was still missing.
“We worked real hard, but weren’t able to resuscitate them,” Dawdy said.
Fouts said she went with her family to survey the house Monday. The fire itself remained in the garage, burning a 1989 Volkswagen Jetta her brother and father were two days from having completely restored.
The fire left ample smoke damage throughout the rest of the house, and the contents are likely a total loss.
“It was heartbreaking,” she said.
The American Red Cross has been helping out with insurance and other matters. Fouts and her husband are staying with her mother-in-law and her parents are staying with relatives.
“Yeah, we’re just kinda sticking together,” she said. “We’re a close-knit family; we’re all gathering around now.”
Her young son is doing well, she said, considering.
“He doesn’t know what’s going on, so that’s good,” she said. “He slept through the entire thing, so that was pretty fortunate.”
The Vancouver Fire Department, Clark County Fire District 6, Clark County Fire District 3 and the Battle Ground Police Department assisted at the scene.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office.
