A 911 call not long before midnight on Sunday alerted the Ocean Shores Fire Department to a house fire near the North Jetty.

When the two firefighters initially responding to the call arrived on scene, they found the house already engulfed, said Ocean Shores Fire Chief Brian Ritter.

“They got there and they were met with very heavy fire conditions and lots of smoke due to the wind,” Ritter said. “Wind drives fires … wind-driven fires are extremely dangerous fires.”

Ocean Shores Police were able to contact the owners and determined the house was unoccupied, Ritter said. With two of the on-duty firefighters transporting a patient to Harbor Regional Health and initially unavailable for the response, OSFD requested aid from other departments, including Hoquiam Fire Department and Fire District 7.

“We really appreciate help from District 7 and Hoquiam,” Ritter said. “Everyone’s tapped on resources.”

The fire was exacerbated by high winds, Ritter said, which were blowing at about 15 miles per hour gusting to about 30 miles per hour, Ritter estimated.

“It’s feeding the fire very very rapidly. It’s very unpredictable and it gets very very hot very very fast,” Ritter said. “It’s hard to stop a wind driven fire. We know down at that area, down at the jetty, there’s a ton of wind.”

The fire took several hours to knock down as it gutted the house, Ritter said. Damper conditions likely kept the fire from spreading with the wind to vegetation or other houses, Ritter said.

“We lucked out with the weather, that it wasn’t dry at all. If it had been last week or the week before, we could have had a real problem,” Ritter said. “It would have been a bad, bad deal.”

As the six new firefighters that recently started at the department are slotted into shifts, there will be more on-duty personnel to help handle calls, Ritter said, but that won’t be for a few weeks.

“Too bad these new employees are still being onboarded,” Ritter said. “But that’s why we’re getting them in the chute.”

The cause of the fire is being investigated Monday, Ritter said, thought it looks like it may have come from the garage area. The fire is not being treated as suspicious, Ritter said. Ritter encouraged all homeowners to make sure their smoke detectors are working and powered, as well as other common-sense tips like being careful with space heaters and not running high-draw appliances through extension cords.

“All the things we kinda take for granted can turn into a nightmare,” Ritter said. “Be safe.”

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.

Ocean Shores firefighters responded to a major fire late on Sunday. (Courtesy photo / OSFD)