SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — An eight-year-old girl died and four others were burned in a fire that broke out in a Snohomish County house on Monday.
A family of five was in the house at the time of the fire, including the 8-year-old and a 7-year-old.
The call came in about 1:30 a.m. for a fire at a home on Dotson Road near Cedar Ponds Road, which is about two miles south of Sultan.
"Frankly, when I went to bed last night, I worry about these things and I was worrying about Cedar Ponds area," said Merlin Halvorson, the fire chief at Snohomish County Fire District 5.
The firefighting effort was challenging because the road to the home is in the woods and remote. Trees had also fallen on the road, two fire trucks were stuck in ditches, and it was snowing, according to fire officials.
"They had a very bad start. It was very, very difficult to get to," Halvorson said.
Once firefighters discovered the house was a loss, crews focused efforts on helping the victims.
All of the family members sustained burns or some kind of injury. The 7-year-old boy had a broken arm and burns.
The fire was caused by clothes that were drying on a wood stove and ignited, according to fire officials.
There were also no smoke alarms in the home. Halvorson recommends residents check whether smoke alarms are present and functional in their homes. If residents have a wood-burning stove and are concerned about a heating source through the cold snap, they are urged to wake up every two hours and check on it.