Yellow Pages
A resilient brush fire destroyed an abandoned farm house and shut down a highway near Big Lake during the weekend, and a second fire near La Conner caused damage to a residence.
No one was injured in either blaze.
The first began Saturday in the 16,000 block of Highway 9 just north of Big Lake. A 75-year-old two-story wood-framed home was engulfed in flames when the Big Lake and Clear Lake Fire departments arrived Saturday night, said Big Lake Fire Chief Brett Berg.
The owner of the home, who lives on the property in another home, had been burning brush Saturday afternoon about 40 feet from the abandoned house, Berg said.
Someone noticed the fire had reignited at about 9:45 p.m. and called 911. About 25 firefighters fought the fire for four hours and thought it was out, Berg said.
The firefighters did not go into the basement of the burned home for safety reasons. At about 1 a.m. the fire ignited a third time and burned the small part of the home that had not already been destroyed, Berg said.
Firefighters eventually extinguished the fire at 5:30 Sunday morning.
A home just west of La Conner, meanwhile, received about $25,000 worth of damage on a deck and wall from a fire Sunday afternoon caused by an electric connection to appliances on the deck shorting out, said Skagit Fire District No. 13 Chief Roy Horn.
The fire, in the 11,000 block of Smokehouse Road, was reported just after 4:30 p.m. Sunday, and firefighters left the scene at about 8:30 p.m. Firefighters from La Conner, Summit Park and Hope Island Fire Departments helped battle the fire and save the home.
• Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or at .
