Emergency responders dispatched to a house fire early Wednesday morning in Northeast Hazel Dell discovered a man dead inside the home.
The Vancouver Fire Department said the occupant had not been able to make it out of the home. Additional information about the individual was not immediately available.
The Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the death and cause of the fire.
Crews from the Vancouver Fire Department and Clark County Fire District 6 were dispatched at 3:58 a.m. to the 7900 block of Northeast 30th Avenue.
The home is near the boundary of the Vancouver Fire Department’s service area, and a Fire District 6 engine was the first to arrive at the scene, Vancouver Fire Department spokesman Joe Spatz said. The crew spotted smoke billowing from the front of a manufactured home, he said.
Additional firefighters arrived and initiated a search of the home. There had been fire burning inside, but by the time of the search, it was only smoldering in a few places. Firefighters focused on hot spots and cleared heavy smoke from the one-story house, Spatz said.
Typically, interior fires break windows, allowing more oxygen to enter a building. That didn’t happen in this case, so the fire likely smothered itself, according to the fire department.
A total of three engines and one ladder truck from both fire agencies were on scene.
