Several fifty-gallon fuel drums are suspected as the main culprit in a Sunday morning single-alarm residential fire in Bellevue's Lakemont neighborhood.
Neighbors reported seeing flames 20-feet high shooting up from the back of the house, located at 17811 SE 60th Street on a wooded foothill below Cougar Mountain. Firefighters responded to the single-story house fire at 6:32 a.m. and the first engine reached the home about ten minutes later, containing the damage to the rear of the home and the attic.
spokesperson Lt. Troy Donlin said the cause of the fire is undetermined, but investigators discovered a number of 50-gallon fuel drums and equipment necessary to manufacture biofuel in the backyard near the suspected source of the fire.
"(The fire) was related to some part of the biodiesel process," Donlin said.
He said said the homeowners were away at the time of the fire and no one was injured.
Over three-dozen firefighters and three fire engines from Bellevue, Eastside Fire and Mercer Island responded to the blaze.
