Generator inside shed blamed for massive Lynnwood house fire

LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- Investigators say a generator, stored inside a shed, caused a fire in Lynnwood Sunday morning displacing five people.

"There's never been a fire right here," said Leon Bennett who has lived on Madison Way for 40 years.



However this morning, he told Q13 News he woke up to massive flames and a large plume of smoke coming from the house next door.

"They were, I don't know, 20 feet high," said Bennett. "All of the smoke just started coming out of the house."

Firefighters with Snohomish County Fire District were called to a four-plex on Madison Way around 9:30 this morning.

Five people were inside and were evacuated right away. No one was hurt.

Fire officials said they believed the fire started because of a generator running inside a shed.

"There's holes in the roof because they had to cut holes to let the gasses out," said Rod Heivilin with 1-800-Boardup.

Because of the fire, the house is a total loss, and crews boarded it up to make sure no one gets in from here on out.

"It's bad, yeah," said Heivilin.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, gasses like carbon monoxide from generators are deadly and can kill you within minutes. So that's why they said to never use portable generators inside garages, basements or sheds.

They're going to have to do a lot of rebuilding if they use this again," said Bennett.

Right now, the Red Cross and Support 7 are helping the five people who were evacuated from the house.

We tried to get in touch with them and the property owner this afternoon, but have not heard back.