Kirkland firefighters responded to a house fire near Peter Kirk Elementary this afternoon.

Initial reports at 1:30 p.m. said there was an explosion at the back of the single-story home at the 1300 block of 5th Ln. in Kirkland’s Norkirk neighborhood.

Capt. Bill Hoover said two workers who were working on an adjacent house saw smoke and flames and ran over and went inside to make sure nobody was home.

“They rescued the dog,” said Hoover, who noted there were no injuries. “… The flames were coming up pretty good.”

The two had some minor smoke inhalation but were treated at the scene as seven engine trucks, two ladders, two aid cars, one medic unit, one medic supervisor, two battalion chiefs, three support staff, one aid unit and one investigator arrived.

“Initial crews came around to the back side of the house and found everything in the back of the house was on fire, the deck was on fire, the back of the house was on fire,” Hoover said. “It then burned into the house.”

After firefighters attacked the fire from the back, they moved inside to put it out in the attic.

Firefighters deemed the fire out at 2:12 p.m.

“The cause is under investigation but there were propane appliances in the back that were on fire when the first engine crew arrived,” Hoover said.

Meanwhile, homeowner Jeff Raulsun, who was not home at the time, received more than five calls from concerned neighbors.

“Neighbor, neighbor, neighbor. Call, call, call,” Raulsun said. “They called my office and then there was a chain reaction. I just started getting everybody unloading on my cell phone.”

Raulsun stood looking at his house with neighbors by his side as one neighbor offered her basement to him.

Raulsun confirmed he and his two dogs and one bird, who are safe, were the only ones who lived there.

“I’m just trying to digest it all,” he said.

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