Investigators call Layton house fire 'suspicious'

Nicole Gonzales and Tom Callan reportingLayton fire investigators are still looking for a cause in a fire that destroyed a home last night. All four people who were in the house made it out safely, but the home is a total loss.

The cause is still unknown, but Layton fire investigators do know where it started: the second-story deck in the back of the home. The investigators are still calling it suspicious, but one neighbor never would have considered arson as a possibility.

"I find it kinda odd that they might think it's arson because they [the residents of the home] have a dog, and anybody who gets near this property that the dog doesn't know, he usually goes off, you know, just barks and everything like that. So that's kinda odd," neighbor Gaylen Mahaffey said.

A passerby noticed the home on fire just before 9:00 last night, but by the time crews arrived it was already engulfed in flames.

All four people, two adults and two children, got out safely. Two families live there, one upstairs and one downstairs.

The fire got so out of control because the wind last night, and it started threatening a neighbor's home. Layton Fire Chief Kevin Ward said, "We did have flames from the involved house actually pretty much lap right against the house to the north. We had some really strong winds that hampered efforts to get the fire under control."

Mahaffey, who lives next door, was in his home when the fire started. "[I] heard a big popping sound. My wife got up to see what that was and said the house was on fire. I ran outside, and this whole back side of this porch was just engulfed in flames," he said.

Investigators say it could take up to a couple of days to finish questioning people, and they could possibly bring police into the mix.

E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com

Related topics