Four people were displaced, including a woman who was taken to the hospital, following a house fire Thursday in Vancouver’s Cascade Highlands neighborhood.
Vancouver firefighters were dispatched at 11:20 a.m. to the 1200 block of Southeast Park Crest Avenue for the report of a residential structure fire.
The first arriving engine reported that the middle section of a home was on fire, and flames appeared to be spreading to the attic, according to emergency radio traffic monitored at The Columbian.
Fire Capt. Pete Adams said it was quickly determined that the fire had spread into the space above the small, one-story home.
Firefighters breached the front door and saw smoke stretching from the ceiling to about 2 feet above the floor, according to the scanner traffic. They searched the house and found a woman in a back room, behind a closed door. Heat and smoke had not penetrated the door, and the woman was able to walk out of the home, Adams said.
She was transported to a hospital with injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening, according to Adams.
The fire captain described the blaze as “stubborn.” It took 23 firefighters about a half-hour to get the fire under control.
One fire crew cut a hole in the home’s garage door and sprayed water inside while another crew doused the attic, according to the scanner traffic.
The house is uninhabitable, Adams said. Red Cross responded to help four displaced residents.
The Vancouver Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause.
