After firefighters had left his property Sunday afternoon, Bruce Silvia remained next to the charred shell of his house, trying to come to grips with what happened.
He was headed to Oak Harbor on Sunday morning, then returned in a panic after the Island County Sheriff’s Office called to tell him his house was on fire.
By the time he got home, much of his mobile home was burned to the ground. Also gone were nearly all of his belongings, including family photo albums and home videos.
“It hurts. God does it hurt,” Silvia said. “It digs deep into your inner soul.
“I’ve walked around this place six times. Every time, something else hits.”
Silvia was grateful, however, that no one was in the house.
As the owner of a construction company and septic service, he rose early Sunday to go to a job site.
“If it had happened three-and-a-half hours earlier, I wouldn’t be here,” he said.
Central Whidbey Fire &Rescue was notified around 9:30 a.m., but one emergency vehicle was already headed that way after noticing a huge plume of smoke in the sky.