GIG HARBOR, Wash. - Just after 10 p.m. Sunday night, firefighters rushed to a Gig Harbor neighborhood. It was the scene of many festive fireworks celebrations.
"I looked out the back sliding glass door and there was this big glow there and I asked my wife 'Did you leave the lights on?' and jumped out of bed and looked and it wasn't lights," says neighbor Jon Liljegren.
The cedar shake roof of the home next door had flames shooting up 20 feet into the sky. The woman living there was on her way home when she saw the fire engines.
"I moved over to let them pass me. Then I started to follow them, but I didn't know I was following them to my house," says Charlene Peyton. "I've never been homeless. Now I'm homeless."
You can see the charred marks on the pavement where fireworks were being set off right in front of the home. Neighbors say they were going off through the whole neighborhood.
Firefighters have been talking to one individual who may have been responsible for that fire. So far, no one has been cited, but someone in this tight-knit community now has to deal with the guilt and the liability of destroying a woman's home.
"Just be aware if you do shoot off fireworks you have to be responsible for what happens and where they land," said Todd Meyer of the Gig Harbor Fire Department.
"I know what happened was an accident, but people need to learn you shouldn't light fireworks in a neighborhood like this one," says Peyton.
The estimated damage to Peyton's home is $350,000
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