Image area house fire kills 3 dogs, displaces 4 people

A house fire killed three dogs and displaced four people early Wednesday morning in Vancouver’s Image neighborhood.

Vancouver Fire Department crews were dispatched around 1:15 a.m. to the 3300 block of Northeast 130th Court for a report of a residential fire.

The initial fire engine arrived within four minutes and found a small two-story house with the front in flames, firefighter Eva Scherer said.

Firefighters started dousing the blaze, but it took a fair amount of time to get it under control. In a half-hour, the fire caused heavy damage to the home’s second floor, rendering it uninhabitable, Scherer said.

The Red Cross responded to help four people displaced by the fire, Scherer said. One of the occupants suffered minor burns to their hand but refused medical treatment. Three dogs died, she said.

How the occupants were alerted to the fire is unclear. They called for help and reported that a second-floor fire was quickly spreading to the attic. Neighbors also called it in, Scherer said.

Firefighters returned to the house around 6:20 a.m. due to debris smoldering in the kitchen, but the flare-up was quickly extinguished.

The Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the fire’s cause.