November 19, 2009

Just before two Thursday morning a fire breaks out on the side of the Platiro home on Nasu Park Loop in Northeast Bend. Burning a wood pile while climbing up into the attic. Traci and her four children ages ten to fifteen are sound asleep.

Their neighbor woke up when his dog began barking. He saw flames burning the fence separating their yards. He calls for help while his roommates run outside.

"We realized that they weren't out of the house so I sent Taylor to go knock on their door and she was pounding and they weren't coming and I was like Taylor just get away from the house and she kept pounding, she wouldn't stop and finally they came," said neighbor Somer Crawford.

Other neighbors awaken to the flames coming outside to help.

"First thing I heard was a big explosion and I came out and saw the flames. She was was just pounding and pounding and finally the little boy sleeping on the couch woke up and he got everybody else up," said neighbor Nan Degarmo.

The Bend Fire Department says the fire is human caused and has turned the investigation over to Bend Police to determine if it was deliberate.

Family friends were at the house helping clean up.  Bear Brown has known the family for 18 years. He was packing up food to take to the family who are staying with relatives.

"Right now the family feels lucky that they got out. It's just tragic that it happened to them, that it happened to anyone. You gotta look at it, it's four kids and a mother and a father who are dislocated from their house right now especially in the economy that we have it's just bad," said Brown.

The damage to the house is estimated at sixty thousand dollars.