Family escapes house fire in Pasco

PASCO, Wash.-- Seven people were displaced by a house fire in Pasco Tuesday night.

The Pasco Fire Department responded to a report of a possible structure fire at N. 8th Dr. and W. Ella St. at about 8:12 p.m. and arrived to find smoke coming from the basement.

According to Deputy Chief Ed Dunbar, the homeowner was asleep upstairs, when his sister-in-law heard smoke detectors sounding from the basement.

She awakened the homeowner, who went downstairs and noticed the smoke. The home was evacuated, but the homeowner went back to the basement with a garden hose and attempted to put out the flames, but was quickly overwhelmed by the smoke.

He did manage to close the door to the room where the fire started before evacuating.

"The occupants did close the door on the room that fire started in, so that helped to limit the spread, and bought them more time to get out of the house" Dunbar said. "The bad thing, is going back in to check on the smoke and take a hose in there. We don't encourage people to do that at all."

The homeowner was treated at the scene for some smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported.

The house is uninhabitable for now, and the family plans to stay with friends.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.