It was a wake-up call Jeff Stice and his family did not expect this July 4th holiday weekend. Just after 1 a.m. Monday morning, Pierce County Fire officials say the fire started in the power panel in the garage.
The flames intensified due to the three vehicles that were inside, including a Tesla.
“Everything in there was a fuel and it burned pretty ferociously,” says Fire Chief, Cliff Mccullom. “This could have went really bad because there’s a bedroom right above that garage.”
Fire officials say the bedroom belongs to one of the family’s three sons, but he happened to be staying at a friend’s house when the fire started.
Crews had the blaze under control in just over three hours. One of the firefighters did suffer smoke inhalation and heat exhaustion, and was transported to the hospital.
The parents and two kids who were inside made it out safely after smelling smoke and hearing the smoke detectors going off.
“Any fire that occurs at night, especially with families, getting them out of their house is the biggest priority,” says Mccullom. “The best early warning is a smoke detector that wakes people up and get them out.”
Jeff Stice says despite the damage, he’s thankful how the situation turned out for his family.