Man and dog perish in North Sound house fire

EDMONDS, Wash. — A North Sound neighborhood is mourning after a neighbor and his dog were killed in a house fire Friday night.

The fire erupted in the 7200 block of 224th Street Southwest.

Firefighters were alerted a baby might be inside. We are told nine people and a dog lived here.

When firefighters arrived, they found just two adults, both in their 50s, and their dog who unfortunately perished.

“Flames was in this corner where the roof part is,” said longtime neighbor Saras Singh.

It was just after 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Singh had come out for her daily walk along the trail next to the house when she saw the flames.

She watched as firefighters brought two adults out of the house, performing CPR on one of them.

“I was very emotional,” Singh said, her voice breaking. “I thought about my own grandkids because they have two little ones.”

Indeed, a passerby saw the smoke, heard what he thought was a baby crying, and tried and failed to rouse whoever was inside.

“So, the response was, you know, very large and very quick,” said Christie Veley, spokeswoman for South Snohomish County Fire, “as is typical with any kind of residential fire.”

She says that meant they could immediately look for potential victims.

“Firefighters got into the home and started searching very quickly and found the two patients that they then rescued,” said Veley.

When asked if they found a child, “No, no child was found,” she said. “It is now believed that the sound of a baby crying was likely actually a dog that died in the fire.”

Fire investigators have not determined the cause or exact location of the fire.

Veley says firefighters did not hear smoke alarms, although they don’t know if there were any.

She says this is a reminder to ensure everyone has working smoke alarms, as they can and do save lives.

A GoFundMe was posted for the family, saying, “Tragically, we lost our beloved pet Mishka and our dear Uncle Ryan. We have lost everything we owned, and we are now facing the daunting task of rebuilding our lives from scratch.”

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