Fire destroys Cd'A home

COEUR d'ALENE - A Coeur d'Alene family escaped an early morning fire uninjured Tuesday, although the blaze destroyed their Lakeside Avenue home.

The fire started around 12:35 a.m. in the rear structure of the home, 1402 Lakeside Ave. All four people inside managed to get out of the house, the Coeur d'Alene Fire Department said, as well as a family member who lived in a guest house located just feet from the back of the house where the fire started.

The family declined an interview request, but witnesses said the flames engulfing the single story home reached past the roof.

"They were way above the roof," said neighbor Dara Morgan, who smelled the fire before she saw it and whose boyfriend, Weston Whitmore, ran across the street and alerted the family after they saw the flames. "It almost looked like the tree was on fire."

Coeur d'Alene fire crews, aided by Kootenai and Northern Lakes, extinguished the blaze in about an hour. Late Tuesday morning the house was boarded up and household items like sofa pillows and dressers were strewn across the lawn, and the smell of smoke hung in the air.

K.C. Loveland and her family live next door and had to be evacuated from their home. Their bedroom window sits a few feet from the rear of the burned home.

Loveland noticed flames first through her bedroom curtains.

"From the edges I saw an orange glow," she said. "I pulled the curtains back and there were just flames coming out the window."

Bobby Gonder, Coeur d'Alene fire inspector, said the department does not suspect foul play. The investigation was still open Tuesday, but he said it would likely be ruled as accidental, which could include an electrical malfunction.