On Monday, Oct. 11, traffic near the Lake Stevens Boys & Girls Club was redirected due to a house fire at 1508 East Lakeshore Dr.

Firefighters were called to the scene at approximately 3 p.m. when the homeowner’s 16-year-old walked in and saw smoke billowing inside the home.

The fire started downstairs and was contained to one room.

“It was a fire that started in the laundry room and was pretty much contained there,” Lake Stevens Fire Marshal Robert Marshall said. “Some of the heat and smoke filtered out into the downstairs hallway and smoke permeated the rest of the downstairs through the open staircase and into the main story.

The homeowners had recently replaced a water valve inside the laundry, which helped in containing the fire.
“They had just replaced the main water line connection coming into the house with a shut-off and it was located in the laundry room just above where the fire started,” Marshall explained. “As the fire progressed the heat from the fire melted the solder in the water pipe and the water pipe broke.”

The water spouting from the line acted like a sprinkler keeping the fire from getting out of control.
“It acted like a sprinkler, actually calming it down. Instead of having a really big build-up of heat and smoke, the water slowed down the progress of it,” Marshall said. “It is very similar to what a home fire sprinkling system does.”

The downside of the water spewing out is that it left over two inches of water in the carpets downstairs.
“Lake Stevens Fire personnel brought in squeegees and tried to get as much water out as possible,” Marshall said.
While the fire did start in the laundry room,  the washer nor the dryer were the cause of the fire. At this point the cause is undetermined.

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