North Sound News

Family whose Edmonds home burned had already been going through hard times

EDMONDS, Wash. — A family who owned a home on 75th Place West in Edmonds that burned early Sunday had already been going through some hard times.

Neighbor Thea Miklasiewizz watched as dozens of firefighters worked on saving the home right next to hers.

Miklasiewizz said the family who owns the home had been renting it out to different people, even though the property had no electricity or running water.

“(The owners) have just been struggling for the past couple of years,” Miklasiewizz said.

Investigators say four or five people were in the house at the time of the fire. They all got out safely.

"There's no power and they have been using a generator,” said Snohomish County Fire District 1 spokeswoman Leslie Hynes.

The fire appears to have started on the outside of the home.

There were huge piles of wood around the property. A backhoe was brought in to remove them before fire officials can start their investigation.

"They chopped wood and sell it as part of their income. Apparently that's gone to the wayside, too,” Miklasiewizz said. "Nothing, nothing next door. They lost it all. We were giving them water up until this week.”

It’s still unclear if it was the owners or renters who were in the house when the fire started.

A cat was trapped inside the house for a time, but an Edmonds police officer was able to go in and rescue the animal.