Fire leaves family homeless

A fire on the Swinomish Reservation destroyed a family’s home on Saturday.

Firefighters from Fire District’s 13 and 11 and the City of Anacortes responded at about 1:15 p.m. to a house burning on Reservation Lane.

The resident, Amanda Johnston, was not at home at the time, and there were no injuries. On Monday Johnston was assessing the damage, and said her cat, “Fuzzy Pickles,” and dog, “Bentley,” were confused about being displaced, too.

Aly Sehlin, a language arts teacher at La Conner Middle School has set up a Go Fund Me page for Johnston, who is her cousin. Sehlin described her as a “single mother to four children, ranging in ages from 7 to 18.” Fortunately, no family members were harmed, but the family has “lost everything” in the fire, the page states.

District 13 Fire Chief Roy Horn said the cause of the blaze has not been officially determined, but they suspect it started in a bedroom due to an extension cord. He said the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community will make a determination as to whether the house can be rebuilt or must be bulldozed.

Horn said he doesn’t have a damage estimate, but guesses it’s more than $15,000. The fire left many windows broken by heat and the back of the building was the most damaged, he said.

“The damage was quite extensive,” he said. “No one was home — thank goodness.”

When contacted by La Conner Weekly News, Johnston wrote, “It’s so sad, but we are staying positive and looking at the brighter side of things.” She said she and her family members are grateful to have only lost possessions, and she couldn’t imagine the difficulty of going through anything worse.

Horn said a total of nine fire fighting vehicles responded to the scene.

The Go Fund Me page is titled, “Amanda Johnston’s Family House Fire” and can be found online here: https://www.gofundme.com/amanda-johnstons-family-house-fire.