Sweet Road house fire intentionally started with gasoline

The man who died in the Sweet Road house fire on September 2 started the fire intentionally with gasoline, investigators found.

North Whatcom Fire and Rescue (NWFR), Whatcom County Fire District 7 and Bellingham Fire Department crews responded to a house fire in the 4300 block of Sweet Road around 2:50 a.m. September 2. First responders found the victim, whom the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office later identified as a 68-year-old Blaine man, deceased in the one-story manufactured home. 

Whatcom County Assessor’s Office records show he was one of the home’s owners. The cause and manner of death are pending, a medical examiner’s office spokesperson said.

Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into the house fire found nothing criminal, spokesperson Deb Slater said.

It’s the first fire fatality within NWFR’s service area in 2022, which runs from north of Bellingham to the U.S./Canada border and from Birch Bay to just east of Lynden.