By Ruth Longoria
Firefighters and investigators spent much of the weekend and Monday sifting through the charred rubble from a Saturday night house fire that caused an estimated $350,000 in damage to a home at 3852 East Mercer Way. No one was injured in the 9 p.m. blaze that sent flames shooting 30 to 40 feet above the roof of the residence, as firefighters arrived on the scene.
The fire was reported by a passerby. It was extinguished within 30 minutes by five fire units from Mercer Island and Bellevue. However, firefighters remained on the scene throughout the night to make sure the embers didn’t reignite. The fire is believed to have started in or near the garage.
“The garage and carport area are where the heat was most intense, so that’s probably where the fire started somewhere near,” said Mercer Island Fire Commander Walt Mauldin. However, the cause of the fire is still under investigation, he added.
Homeowner Greg DeHaan, 45, was at a friend’s house watching a football game when the fire broke out.
As a team of firefighters in hard hats raked through the ashes and removed large and small lengths of timbers that were once the garage’s walls and roof, DeHaan answered a cell phone call from a business acquaintance.
“I had a little bit of trouble over the weekend, my house burned down,” DeHaan told the caller, to explain his distraction over ordinary work-related items. “Somebody told me to carry a pen and paper everywhere today and write everything down, because I’m not going to remember anything later,” he said concerning the shock he was feeling over what remained of his home and vehicles.
In addition to extensive smoke and water damage throughout the home, during the fire, the roof of the garage collapsed on what was DeHaan’s 2000 BMW coupe. Now the BMW is burned beyond recognition. His 2000 Chevrolet truck, parked in front of the garage, also became a partially charred skeleton. Saturday afternoon, DeHaan had installed his third large flatscreen television in the house. That was in the master bedroom, right behind the garage. “They touch water and they’re done for,” he said of the new TV he never got to watch.
DeHaan said he received a phone call telling him that his house was on fire. He had driven his third vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, to the friend’s house, so, his favorite vehicle wasn’t harmed, he said. “I’d really be crying if it was my Escalade,” he said. DeHaan is currently staying with his ex-wife, as his home is no longer livable. He recently divorced, so there weren’t a lot of non-replaceable personal items still in the home. His son and ex-wife also weren’t there when the fire broke out. Nor were there any family pets. “That’s the good thing, there wasn’t anyone home,” DeHaan said. “Everything else is replaceable.”
