March 7, 2002 * 02-16-01

(Near INDIANOLA, Kitsap County) -- A man lost his home and many of his possessions when fire broke out in a recreational vehicle here on Wednesday evening.

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue crews were dispatched to the Fern Street address after several of the man's neighbors spotted flames and called 911 shortly before 9:00pm. The first firefighters -- responding from the district's new South Kingston Road station -- at the scene had difficulty locating the site, situated near the end of a long and dark series of dirt roads in the woods outside of Indianola. Upon their arrival, the 17-1/2' 1972 Dodge motorhome was completely engulfed in fire. The vehicle's owner was safely outside, suffering cuts and minor burns to his hands when he attempted to move propane tanks away from the flames. He told crews that he'd started a fire in the motorhome's woodstove and dampened it down before going to an adjacent camper to watch television. Approximately thirty minutes later, he said, several loud bangs caused him to go outside and investigate. He found the back of the motorhome (the location of the woodstove) ablaze with flames already burning through the vehicle's roof. Although he attempted to enter the motorhome in an effort to extinguish the fire and save a treasured antique guitar, intense heat prevented him from doing so. He's grateful that neighbors called 911; his cellular phone was inside, leaving him without the means to summon help.

Firefighters believe that the woodstove's chimney may have been faulty, allowing the woodstove's heat to ignite the structure and contents of the motorhome which was completely destroyed.