Fire torches garage, truck and trailer

Two firefighters were treated for dehydration and released from Whidbey General Hospital Sunday after battling a blaze on Country Lane near Oak Harbor.

They were two of the firefighters who doused a fire that consumed a detached garage, a pickup truck and a fifth-wheel camper trailer. The trailer was parked inside the garage.

Marv Koorn, chief of North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, said the fire had largely engulfed the building, trailer and truck by the time firefighters arrived. He didn't know the cause of the fire.

Mike Russo, who lives on nearby Stremler Drive, said he heard an explosion and when he walked outside he saw the billowing smoke.

Firefighters from the Navy and Oak Harbor fire departments provided personnel and equipment to help extinguish the blaze.

Sunday's fire also burned about an acre of grass surrounding the garage. Koorn said a truck designed to fight brush fires was also on scene and was instrumental in stopping the grass fire before it could spread to the woods and nearby fields that surround the property.

The record heat that has been drying out Whidbey Island in recent days is always an issue for firefighters when they are battling a conflagration, Koorn said. The two firefighters who ended up in the hospital were among the first to respond. In cases where heat is an issue, firefighters are rotated out faster.

View Country Lane fire in a larger map

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