South King Fire and Rescue officials believe a 73-year-old woman — who is well-known in Federal Way for often waving political signs in front of Winco Foods — died in a house fire Thursday afternoon.
“She’s a local celebrity, if you’ve seen the lady in the wheelchair who waves signs for political campaigns,” said Capt. Jeff Bellinghausen with South King Fire of the woman who owns the older two-story home in the 28800 block of 19th Ave. S. He emphasized that the victim has not been identified yet.
South King Fire received the initial call at 3:15 p.m. and a total of 24 people, including 18 firefighters, battled the fully-involved house fire.
“Crews pulled in and there was fire literally coming out of every window and door until we got here,” Bellinghausen said. “They couldn’t go inside. The house you can see is covered with a lot of trees, so it was probably burning for quite awhile before anyone noticed it.”
He said crews couldn’t get inside the home because of the flames.
“Once we did get some flames knocked down and tried to make entry, the house has a lot of debris inside that made it very difficult,” he said. “We heard right away that there might be someone inside, so we made every effort we could but we just couldn’t get inside. And it had burned for quite awhile before we got there.”
Firefighters looked into the home from the windows outside and found the body.