Updated: An elderly man died in a two-alarm house fire in North Queen despite firefighters’ best attempts to save him. The small, two-story house on Queen Anne Ave. N and Dravus St. was fully-involved in flames when firefighters arrived just after 7 p.m.
“The heat and the flames drove them back to the first floor,” explained Seattle Fire Lt. Sue Stangl, explaining that firefighters had been to the house before and knew the man was likely upstairs. “What had happened was like a flash-over, and a flash-over is when all of the heated gases in the house erupt into flames almost simultaneously. So it’s really dangerous for firefighters to be in that situation,” Stangl said. “So the firefighters were brought outside, and we then called a two-alarm fire to bring in more fire resources on scene.”
After the fire was under control, firefighters discovered his body on the second floor. Neighbors told the Seattle Times the man who lived there was a retired school teacher who was suffering from cancer. The ex-wife of the man says there was a troublesome gas fireplace on the second floor.
Earlier: Multiple fire crews are at Queen Anne Ave N at Dravus tonight. According to scanner traffic, the fire is in the second story of a vacant house. Crews on the scene are saying the fire is knocked down.
The original came out to 3rd Ave NW and Dravus but was revised when firefighters arrived on scene.