Early-morning fire destroys home in SW Bend

(Update: Neighbor reaction; fire’s cause undetermined due to extensive damage)

A southwest Bend home is considered a total loss at more than $750,000 when a fire ripped through the home early Tuesday morning.

Firefighters responded shortly before 1 a.m. to several 911 calls reporting a fire in the 19000 block of Golden Meadow Loop, Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Derlacki said.

When crews arrived on the scene, they found the family had safely evacuated the home, which was fully ablaze, he said. Crews worked for about an hour to fully contain the fire.

Bend Fire estimated the losses at $650,000 to the home, $100,000 worth of contents and $10,000 to a vehicle.

Derlacki said later Tuesday that the fire’s cause could not be determined due to the extensive damage.

“The fire appears to have been accidental, but the exact cause could not be determined,” he added.

Neighbors said it was a scary wake-up call when they heard screaming and saw the flames.

Several said Tuesday evening they were scrambling to hose down their own homes to make sure the fire didn’t spread, saying they woke up to flames shooting up into the sky.

They said firefighters were on the scene very quickly and got a quick handle on the fire.

The next-door neighbors said they are completely heartbroken for the family but that everyone is safe and doing okay.

Another neighbor, Ron Wedeman, said he was shocked and concerned when he looked out of his window and saw the flames.

“Naturally worried about our own property. In fact,a couple of neighbors were thinking about getting their animals out and taking off,” Wedeman said. “But the fire department were very good at controlling that, and the one tree that was on fire, they put it out, and the rest of us are safe. We feel sorry for the loss of the home and their personal property.”

Every neighbor that NewsChannel 21 spoke to Tuesday night said they are devastated for the family.

Fire officials said the home had working smoke alarms and that the residents declined Red Cross assistance, as they turned to family and friends.

“Bend Fire Department reminds everyone to review their insurance policies on a regular basis to ensure proper coverage of your home and belongings,” Derlacki said in a news release. “Other tips that can help in the event of a fire is to put important documents into a fire-resistant safe, back up computer files off site to the cloud or similar in case the computer is damaged, and keeping an inventory of your homes contents.”

“This can be accomplished with video, photos and lists, and then store those in a safe location or off-site,” he said. “All of these can help in the recovery process. The owners here had much of this accomplished and were even able to salvage important documents that were thought to be lost in the fire.”