Elderly woman saved from fire

Saving an elderly woman from a house fire and fighting flames became a neighborhood effort in the Mariners Cove area Friday afternoon.

Resident Bill Allington said he saw a large amount of smoke coming from the two-story Cove Road house, so he and his daughter, Sandra, went to help.

They started pounded on the door, but they didn’t get an answer. They were looking in the windows to see if anyone was home when the resident, 94-year-old Louise Boundy, apparently opened the door and then went back inside.

Another resident, Mary Kay Holcomb, arrived and noticed the front door was left open. She went in and found Boundy walking back to her bedroom. Holcomb said the frail woman seemed confused and didn’t realize that her house was on fire. Holcomb escorted her to safety.

“It was pretty smoky in there,” she said.

Allington said he grabbed a garden hose and went inside to fight the fire. He was able to get the blaze pretty well under control. “I had it about out when the fire department got there,” he said.

Allington said his daughter and another neighbor, Lewis Eisenberg, also helped out with the neighborhood effort.

Chief Marv Koorn with Island County Fire District 2 said there were “some flames” showing from the attic of the 3,000-square-foot house when firefighters arrived. Extinguishing the fire was relatively simple, thanks to the neighbors.

“It was a quick put-out,” he said. “We were there a total of a couple of hours just for clean-up and mop-up.”

Koorn said the fire started in the wall between the master bedroom and the master bathroom, but then flames spread upward into the attic. The cause of the fire appeared to be electrical, he said.

According to Koorn, there was fire damage to the roof and the ceiling above the bathroom and master bedroom. “None of the contents of the house were destroyed,” he said.

Boundy was treated and released from Whidbey General Hospital the same day, according to hospital spokesperson Trish Rose. She has been assisted by the Red Cross and is staying at a local nursing home, according to neighbors.

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