Dec. 05--Firefighters are battling a second-alarm fire on Fox Island where a father and one of his three children are presumed dead after being unable to escape, authorities said.
Multiple agencies were summoned before midnight Wednesday to help contain the blaze at the expansive waterfront home on 6th Avenue Northwest.
The entire family -- mother, father, two boys and an 8-year-old girl -- were home at the time of the fire.
The mother reportedly grabbed one of the children and escaped. A neighbor who came to assist was able to save another child.
"When the neighbor and the mom tried to go back in, the house was engulfed in flames," Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said.
The man and one of the children were reportedly unable to get out.
The man is a trauma doctor in Pierce County who also works as a reserve deputy for the department, Troyer said. The man has not been identified.
Several grieving deputies and neighbors have gathered outside the nearly 5,000-square-foot home.
Copyright 2013 - The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
