Fire scorches Kirkland waterfront home
The fire broke out in the 13000 block of Holmes Point Dr. NE around 1:20 p.m. said Kirkland fire officials.
"The owner was in his office, which is located below the garage," said Robin Paster with the Kirkland Fire Department. "He heard crackling from outside; he went out to investigate and saw flames coming from the back corner of his home. He got his assistant out; the assistant called 911 while he tried to find a hose. He also recognized it was beyond anything he could control with anything like a garden hose."
Video from AIR4 showed flames had spread across almost the entire roof of the large home, which sits on the shores of Lake Washington.
As the first firefighters were battling the blaze in the home, part of the roof collapsed on top of three of them, Paster said.
"What fell on them were the 2-by-4s," Paster said. "The beams came down so they were driven to the floor by the weight of the beams, and the wood was on fire."
However, none of the firefighters were injured and all were accounted for.
Firefighters then evacuated the home and took a defensive stand.
No one else inside the home was injured.
Damage estimates were not available, but property tax records show the home was worth over $2 million and the owner says he invested $1 million into remodeling the home.
The cause of the fire is not known but the owner says he smoked a cigar earlier in the day upstairs.