A Clallam County Sheriff’s deputy evacuated a resident and his pets from a mobile home as it caught fire from a blaze that destroyed an empty cedar house on Wednesday.
At 10:32 p.m. Wednesday a neighbor called 9-1-1 to report a fire in the empty house at 113 S. Brook Ave., east of Port Angeles.
Deputy Matt Murphy, who was on patrol nearby, was the first to reach the address, arriving within a minute of the report, said Brian King, chief criminal deputy for the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
Murphy found the cedar house fully engulfed in flames and an adjacent mobile home beginning to catch fire, King said.
Murphy awakened the resident of the mobile home, Robert Stringham, 51, and evacuated him.
Once Stringham was safe, Murphy returned to the smoke-filled mobile home to remove two dogs, a cat, and two birds.
The empty house was destroyed by the fire, and the mobile home was severely damaged.
The cause and origin of the fire is under investigation by Clallam County Fire District 2 with the assistance of sheriff’s deputies with advanced training in fire investigations.
The department responded with 16 firefighters, three engines, two fire tenders, a chiefs unit and medical unit.