Neighbors grab hoses, douse NE Bend house fire

Neighbors and Bend police used garden hoses to put out a fire on the attached patio of a northeast Bend home early Saturday, officials said.

The fire was reported shortly before 1:30 a.m. at a home in the 63000 block of Northeast Lancaster Street, said Bend Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Blake.

Crews arrived to find neighbors and Bend police had used hoses to put out the flames on the attached rear patio of the home, Blake said. Fire crews ensured the fire was out and had not extended to the rest of the home.

The residents had evacuated the home by the time firefighters arrived and were safely waiting outside.

The fire caused an estimated $10,000 damage to the home. The cause of the fire was under investigation, but Blake said it apparently began in an outdoor garbage container.

Nearby resident Mike Murray told NewsChannel 21 he and his two best friends, Casey Norman and Ralf Schultz, put out the blaze.

“It was 1 a.m., we heard the fire starting to crackle from down the block,” he wrote in a Facebook message. “So we ran down, worked on getting the family of four out of the home and then proceeded to put the fire out before the FD got there.”

Murray had praise for his friend Casey, who he said was the first of the three “to just instinctively grab a garden hose and take on a two-story house fire.” He said the four people sleeping inside didn’t hear them banging on the door or ringing the doorbell, but emerged when police arrived and called an occupant’s cellphone number.

“We ended up all taking turns using two garden hoses, spraying the smoldering back porch down” until authorities arrived, Murray said.