Elderly woman dies in Monday house fire in south Thurston County
An elderly woman died in a house fire in south Thurston County early Monday morning.
At around 4:30 a.m. a neighbor woke up to see the woman’s home engulfed in flames, said South Thurston Fire Chief Andrew Schaffran.
The neighbor called 911 and firefighters arrived soon after to the 3300 block of 163rd Avenue Southwest near Sunnydale, between Grand Mound and Tenino. He said fire crews knocked down the blaze by about 5:30 a.m. No one else occupied the home and no other structures were damaged, he said.
Schaffran called the woman’s home, a small one-story structure, a “total loss,” with fire shooting out of all the windows and doorways. By the time fire crews arrived, he said the roof had collapsed.
“At that point, there was no livable, tenable space for anyone inside the house,” Schaffran said. “Everyone did their job. They did it as well as possible for the circumstances.”
Once crews knocked down the fire, he said they found the woman’s remains.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation Monday afternoon, he said. The woman’s identity has not yet been released.
In all, Schaffran said 20 firefighters with three fire engines and three water tenders responded to the scene. Crews from West Thurston Fire, Bucoda Fire and East Olympia Fire provided assistance, he said.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 2:15 PM.
