VANCOUVER, Wash. — One person was seriously injured in a fire at a property in northeast Vancouver on Friday afternoon, according to the Vancouver Fire Department.
Reports of a house fire "with explosions" started coming in from neighbors around East 32nd Street and P Street in Vancouver shortly after 2 p.m. Vancouver Fire dispatched eight suppression units and two command units to respond.
The first firefighters on-scene arrived to find a detached garage fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to the nearby house, ultimately extinguishing the flames.
Fire crews also found and gave first aid to an adult man who had suffered serious injuries, the Vancouver Fire Department said. Two of the firefighters rode in the ambulance with the victim to a Portland-area burn center to continue medical care along with the crew from American Medical Response.
Neighbors described a "chaotic scene" before firefighters arrived and knocked down the flames.
"It was crazy, it looked like (something) out of a movie scene, honestly," one neighbor told KGW. "It was just flames, you could feel the heat rushing, just debris flying through the air, it was ... not a fun time."
At the peak of the response, Vancouver Fire had 28 people on the scene. No firefighters were injured.
In an initial statement, Vancouver Fire said it was unknown how many people were displaced in the fire. The cause is under investigation by the Vancouver Fire Marshal's office, the Vancouver Police Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge.