Fire destroys mobile home in Bothell, firefighters also battle heat | Photos

Published 4:03 pm Monday, July 1, 2013

The warmest day of the year so far got a lot hotter for local firefighters as a fire in a Bothell mobile home park destroyed one unit and damaged two more today.

No one was injured in the blaze in the 12000 block of Woodinville-Juanita Way N.E.

“There are a lot of people who are hot and tired but no injuries,” Bothell Fire Battalion Chief  Dan Johnson said. “There was one structure fully involved when we got here and the mobile homes on either side were damaged.”

The fire also destroyed two cars.

Dispatchers received the 911 call around 1:15 p.m.

“The homeowner was outside watering [her garden] when she noticed the fire,” Bothell Fire spokesperson Kirsten Clemens said.

She added that two more people live in the unit but were not home at the time, leaving three residents displaced. Officials could not comment on whether more residents will be displaced because of the fire damage to neighboring mobile homes.

Investigators will have plenty of witnesses. Residents poured into the park’s streets to watch the crews put out the flames.

More than eight trucks responded to the blaze from Bothell, Woodinville, Shoreline, Kirkland and Northshore Fire.

Firefighters have to use precaution when the outside temperature is near record levels as temperatures reached into the 90s on Monday. More firefighters are needed as the temperatures climb during the summer months.

“During a typical structure fire there are rules that say when your [air] tank is empty you have to come out and drink a bottle of water,” said Johnson. “But in this situation when they run out of their second tank they have to come all the way out and take all their gear off. That is why there are so many here.”

The extra resources make it easier to attack the fire. But there is still extreme risk for the firefighters to overheat.

“Dehydration is huge,” Clemens said. “Their gear weighs 75 pounds. So this takes a lot of man power.”

Clemens said that investigators are still working to find the cause of the fire.

Firefighters work at the scene of a fire at a Bothell mobile home park on Monday afternoon.

A firefighter adjusts his head gear after crews from the Bothell, Northshore, Shoreline, Kirkland and Woodinville fire departments put out a fire at a mobile home park in Bothell on Monday.

A charred tree near the site of a fire at a Bothell mobile home park on Monday.

Smoke billows from the rooftop of a Bothell mobile home park on Monday afternoon.