Firefighters prevented the majority of a home from going up in flames after heat from a fireplace ignited the walls of a sunroom in a home on San Juan Island’s Skottowe Lane late Saturday night.

San Juan Island Fire Department was dispatched to the fire at about 9 p.m., and gained an upper-hand in containing the fire within the sunroom about 15 minutes after arriving at the scene, Chief Steve Marler said. A neighbor doused the fire with a garden hose that helped prevent the fire from spreading to the rest of the one-story house until firefighters arrived at the scene, Marler said.

“When our guys got there they did a good job of keeping the fire to that one location,” he said. “A neighbor put a garden hose on it before we got there and that helped a lot.”

The woman living in the home, as well as her rabbit, escaped without injury and spent the night with a friend, according to the fire department.

The fire apparently started when heat from a large stone fireplace, similar to that of a hunting lodge, ignited a wall made of wood that surrounds it, Marler said.

“At first glance it appears to have been an accidental fire caused by overexposure of that wooden wall from the fireplace,” he said.

Skottowe Lane is located off of Beaverton Valley Road, on Cady Mountain, near the intersection with Boyce Road.

Twenty firefighters, two fire engines, two water tenders, an aid car, five EMTs , seven logistics team members and a Sheriff’s Deputy, as well as OPALCO responded to the fire. San Juan EMS provided EMTs to offer medical support to both the firefighters and the resident. The fire was under control by 1 a.m.

While the fire gutted the sunroom, Marler said that the majority of the home, roughly 1,500 square feet in size, sustained only minor damage from the fire or smoke.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that if the homeowner and insurance company want to rebuild they’ll be able to,” Marler said.

— Scott Rasmussen