UPDATE | Tulalip home, pets saved by bicycling neighbor with garden hose

Roland Anderson helped save his neighbor's home and pets from a fire on the morning of May 13.

TULALIP — Roland Anderson helped save his neighbor’s home and pets from a fire on the morning of May 13.

Anderson was riding his bike through the 400 block of Priest Point Drive NW when he spotted smoke coming from a house and heard an odd noise, according to Marysville Fire District Public Education Specialist and Public Information Officer Kristen Thorstenson. When he found flames after investigating the scene, he used a garden hose from the house next door, after the first hose he grabbed didn’t work, to dampen the flames coming from where the smoke alarms were sounding. He also rescued two dogs.

Marysville and Tulalip Bay firefighters responded to the scene of the still smoldering fire after it was reported, just before 9 a.m. According to Thorstenson, the fire apparently started in a daylight basement of the home and was contained to that room, although the Snohomish County Red Cross was called to assist the two adults who were displaced by smoke damage throughout the house, which is estimated at $100,000. No one was injured by the fire. The homeowners have insurance and will be staying with neighbors.

The Snohomish County Fire Marshal’s office is conducting an investigation and its preliminary reports point toward an electrical accident as the cause.