Cause of Saturday house fire that killed 3 in Rainier ruled not suspicious

Investigators have determined the cause of a house fire that killed a child and her grandparents in Rainier on Saturday is not suspicious, Southeast Thurston Fire Authority Chief Mark King said Monday.

Investigators also found that there were no working smoke detectors in the house, King said.

Fire crews were dispatched at around 1:20 a.m. Saturday to the 16100 block of Village Drive Southeast in rural Rainier. When they arrived, they found a house engulfed in flames.

A woman in her early 20s was able to escape the fire, but a couple in their 40s and their 3-year-old granddaughter died in the fire.

King said because the house was down a cul-de-sac with a narrow dirt road, accessibility was difficult. There also was no nearby water supply.

The three fire victims’ identities have not been released by Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock, who said Monday that examinations will be done Thursday.

This story was originally published January 24, 2022 at 12:03 PM.

Ty Vinson

The Olympian

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Ty Vinson covers the City of Olympia and keeps tabs on Tumwater and other communities in Thurston County. He joined The Olympian in 2021. Before that, he earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University. In college, he worked as an intern at the Northwest Indiana Times, the Oregonian and the Arizona Republic as a Pulliam Fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription