Fire Totals House, Vehicles on North Rose Hill in Kirkland

A house on Rose Hill and two cars were all a total loss and a male resident taken to for minor smoke inhalation after Kirkland firefighters surrounded and put out a fire late Monday night.

“It was fully involved when we got there,” Kirkland Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe Sanford said Tuesday morning. “There was a tree that had started to go as well. It was big enough that it could have caught the houses on either side. First we protected those properties and then surrounded the fire.”

The house is on north Rose Hill in the 11300 block of 128th Ave. NE in Kirkland. Firefighters got the call at about 11 p.m.

Sanford said the man who lived in the house, about 60 years old, managed to get out, but suffered from minor smoke inhalation.

“The house and its contents were a total loss,” he said. “Two vehicles parked out front were also a total loss.”

Fire investigators remained on the scene Tuesday morning, and the exact cause of the fire is not yet known. Two ladder trucks, two fire engines and aide cars responded, including units from Bothell and Redmond.

Firefighters extinguished the fire in about 40 minutes, with no injuries.

Sanford said the late-summer dryness and surrounding vegetation were a concern. “Anytime the vegetation moisture drops around 18 percent, which usually happens around here in late August, we can get fire in trees and shrubs,” Sanford said. “When they get going they put out a lot of heat and sparks and embers.”