Operations & Training

Three Killed in Union Gap, WA, House Fire

Nov. 28, 2024

A man checking on family in Union Gap found smoke inside the house and a man dead.

By Donald W. Meyers

Source Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.

Yakima Fire Capt. Jeremiah Stilley said the three people died in a cold smoke event in the Union Gap home.

Nov. 27—A family of three was killed in a fire at a home in Union Gap early Wednesday morning.

A man called the fire department after going to his brother-in-law's home in the 2400 block of South 10th Avenue around 5:30 a.m., Yakima Fire Department Capt. Jeremiah Stilley said. Nobody answered the door, and when the brother-in-law went inside, he found smoke in the house and the husband dead, Stilley said.

Stilley described the scene as a "cold smoke event" where a fire consumes all of the oxygen in an enclosed area and puts itself out, leaving the area filled with smoke.

Firefighters went into the home and found the two other people, a mother and her young child, Stilley said.

Chief Yakima County Deputy Coroner Marshall Slight said a preliminary examination of the family determined that they died of smoke inhalation. Slight is not releasing names at this time, but said the child was a 3-year-old girl.

Stilley said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Reach Donald W. Meyers at [email protected].

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