Fire that destroyed a double-wide mobile home at 29659 142nd Ave. SE in Auburn Wednesday morning has also taken a life.
In a press release Wednesday afternoon, Auburn Police Cmdr. Steve Stocker said that a resident of the home may have been inside when the fire started.
“We fear that he did not make it out of the house,” Stocker said.
On Friday, VRFA Battalion Chief Dan Bosch confirmed that investigators had found a man’s body in the house.
The identity of the man, his age and the cause of the fire are as yet unknown, Bosch said
Seeing smoke and flames at about 11:35 a.m., a neighbor called 911. The first fire crews to arrive saw that the home was engulfed in flames, and quickly determined it would be unsafe for anyone to enter.
VRFA crews, the Kent RFA, Mountain View Fire and Rescue. and Maple Valley Fire supplied water from the tanks of three fire engines and three water tenders. In all, five fire engines, three water tenders, one ladder truck, one medical aid unit, two King County Medic One units, one firefighter rehabilitation unit and two command units responded, according to the VRFA.
Because the home was three quarters of a mile from the main road, with no fire hydrants nearby, providing water to fight the fire required the careful coordination of large capacity tanker trucks..
One firefighter sustained a minor injury and was taken to a local hospital for evaluation and treatment, according to the VRFA.