By MATT JOHNSON

Record editor

An early-morning fire near Langley Sunday burned a house to the ground but, apparently, left no one homeless.

According to Darin Reid, chief of Fire District 3’s Special Services division, firefighters were called out to the Brooks Hill Road blaze at about 3 a.m. Sunday. When they arrived at the scene, they found a double-wide manufactured home completely engulfed in flames.

“By the time we got there, it was 90 percent involved,” Reid said.

Reid said firefighters might not have know about the fire until even later had it not been for a passing driver. That driver, Thomas Scott of Langley, stopped when he saw that about a quarter of the house was on fire. According to Reid, he rushed into the house to look for people trapped inside. When he found no one, he drove into Langley and called 911.

Though firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly using the district’s new compressed-air foam truck, the structure was a total loss. While investigating the cause of the fire, Reid learned that the home had been empty for “a couple of months.”

Reid said an initial look through the remains did not indicate a cause for the blaze. However, a preliminary investigation by the Island County Sheriff’s office indicates that foul play probably wasn’t involved.

The name of the home owner was not available at press time.