Residents forced to evacuate early morning fire

MUKILTEO -- Police officers alerted apartment residents to evacuate an early morning fire at the 77 Sunset Strip Apartments.

Firefighters from the Mukilteo Fire Department, Snohomish County Fire District 1 and Lynnwood Fire Department responded to the fire in the 2300 block of Washington Avenue around 3:43 a.m. Saturday, said Mukilteo Fire Assistant Chief Brian McMahan.

When firefighters arrived flames were coming out of a bedroom window in a lower apartment unit, moving upward to an upper level unit in the four unit building, said McMahon.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire and kept it from spreading.

A small section of the fire burned through the floor causing slight smoke and fire damage to the upper unit.

"Using an aggressive fire attack from the outside to the inside and then later transitioning to interior fire attack helped stop the building from being a total loss," said McMahon.

The building was built in 1959 and did not have a sprinkler system, said McMahon.

The cause of the fire is undetermined and under investigation by the Mukilteo Fire Marshal.

The estimated loss for the structure and contents is approximately $80,000.

All residents were displaced from the apartments.