Cause of deadly Whatcom home fire ‘undetermined;’ Bolton Tire fire investigation continues

The cause of last week’s deadly mobile home fire north of Bellingham could not not be determined, the Whatcom County Fire Marshal’s Office reported.

Meanwhile, the investigation to find what started a weekend two-alarm fire that destroyed the Bolton Tire Pros store in Lynden continues.

Two Whatcom County residents died when they were unable to get out of a mobile home that caught fire the morning of July 11 near Phillips 66 Soccer Park.

“The cause of that fire is undetermined at this time,” Fire Inspector Jacob Johnson told The Bellingham Herald on Tuesday, July 19.

The residents who died were a 68-year-old man and an 85-year-old woman, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Deb Slater told The Bellingham Herald.

Whatcom County District 7, North Whatcom Fire and Rescue and Bellingham Fire Department crews were called to a report of a structure fire at 6:53 a.m. Monday, July 11, in the 5300 block of Northwest Drive, according to the PulsePoint app.

Though the fire was only a couple of football fields away from the North Bellingham Fire Station (Station 43), the double-wide mobile home was already fully engulfed in flames by the time firefighters arrived, District 7 Chief Larry Hoffman told The Herald at the time.

While two people in the home were able to get out out, Hoffman said the the two other were trapped and could not be saved.

The Seattle office of the ATF announced in a tweet that it had been asked to assist Whatcom County investigators in determining a cause.

Bolton Tire fire investigation

Johnson told The Herald that the investigation into what caused Saturday night’s fire that destroyed the Bolton Tire Pros store along Guide Meridian in Lynden remains under investigation on Tuesday.

First calls for that fire came in at approximately 11:30 p.m. July 18, Lynden Fire Department Chief Mark Billmire told The Herald. A second alarm was sounded in the fire after heavy black smoke quickly developed into a fully-involved fire.

The store’s inventory of tires, which are extremely flammable, likely played a big role in the store burning so quickly, Billmire said. The fire nearly destroyed the entire building, and what was still standing Monday was knocked down due to safety concerns after investigators concluded their on-site review.

According to its website, Bolton Tire Pros has been locally owned and operated since 2016, selling tires for passenger vehicles, motorcycles, RVs, trailers and farm equipment. The shop also did alignments, brake repairs, steering and suspension work, batteries and more.