Shoreline house fire leaves man in critical condition

SHORELINE -- Neighbors say it was a raging fire near the corner of North 185th Street and Stone Avenue North.

"It was solid flames.  I couldn't see, I got the hell out of here,” neighbor Vernon Rollins said Thursday.

Shoreline House FireRollins, who lives next door, says he didn't hear a thing until a neighbor banged on his front door.

"She said, 'Get out of this house.  The house is burning down next door.  Get your car, get the hell out of here, you're going to burn down,'” Rollins said.

The fire spread quickly and burned extremely hot.

It engulfed the house in a matter of minutes.

"The whole house just was instantly incinerated everywhere. You could tell instantly it was a total loss.  It was just no way,” witness Russ Castner said.

Castner watched it all happen from across the street.

He says along with the fire, he's pretty sure there was an explosion, too.

"There was a big bang and it blew out two or three of the windows and then you could hear like a big fire WOOOF, and it just was fully involved instantly, 20-foot flames,” Castner said.

With so much smoke and fire, crews were called in from Bothell, Seattle and The North Shore to assist.

Two people inside the house were able to get out, but one of them, a man was burned and rushed to the hospital.

As for the possibility of an explosion, fire investigators say they don't know yet, but there is a possible explanation and link to a burned-out pickup truck in the driveway.

"From what we can tell, tires blew out on the vehicle.  Now that's what we know.  We don't know about the cause so it could have been others,” Shoreline Fire Department spokesman said.

Fire fighters were able to extinguish the fire quickly, in only about 10 minutes, and keep it from spreading to another home on one side and an apartment complex on the other.