PORT ORCHARD, Wash. — The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office says a 40-year-old father and his 9-year-old daughter died in a house fire in unincorporated Port Orchard on Saturday morning.
Around 1:30 a.m., crews arrived to find the home fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff’s office said.
Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue reported that they had to send multiple water tender tanks to the house due to a lack of water pressure from fire hydrants in the area.
Fire investigators say there were six people in total in the house at the time, but two didn’t make it out.
The Kitsap County Fire Marshal’s Office believes the fire started in the basement, creating a pressure on the front door, which made it difficult to open.
“Have a plan to get out of your house if you have a fire,” said Kevin McCarty with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office. “That’s what happens a lot of times in situations like this is people simply don’t know how they can get to safety.”
The family of Carlin Sheedy and his daughter Jayden Sheedy have set up a GoFundMe linked here.
Dave Payne and Michelle Merlino live next door. They told KIRO 7 that their neighbors woke them up banging on the door in the middle of the night.
“They were just going panic, panic mode,” Payne said.
Payne helped hose down some of the brush fires while waiting for fire crews to arrive on scene. He said he heard the windows popping out.
“It was almost entirely engulfed,” Payne said.
They said their home became a home base for the family waiting for answers as crews responded.
“We opened our home, and of course, we’d do that to anyone,” Merlino said. “We wanted to do more. It’s just hard to know what to do at that time.”
Family of the victims told KIRO 7 on Monday that Carlin Sheedy’s son was recovering in the hospital.
“We’re still processing and it’s hard to believe that they’re gone and the house is gone,” Merlino said. “It’s hard to believe, and we don’t know what we can do for them. It’s hard.”
The Kitsap County Fire Marshal, sheriff’s office, and medical examiner are investigating the cause of the fire and the cause of death for Sheedy and his daughter.
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