Woman escapes mobile home fire; investigators say it could be arson



PORT ORCHARD, Wash. -- A mobile home was destroyed by fire early Monday morning on the 4400 block of Eastway Drive Southeast in Port Orchard.

Investigators believe arson could be the cause.

A woman inside the home escaped injury when the Kitsap County home burst into flames.

Police said the 38-year-old house sitter smelled smoke around 1:30 in the morning.

When she went outside she confronted a man in the yard – but he took off running, while neighbors called 911.

“You can barely see the house and stuff through the trees,” said neighbor Betsy Savioe.

Smoldering rubble and scorched metal was all that’s left of the mobile home.

Savioe said she is shaken up about the crime scene next door.

“It’s scary but thank goodness they got out,” she said. “These people weren’t home which is a good thing but they’re going to come home to nothing.”

Police said the renters are out of state on vacation and haven’t yet seen the damage.

Paul Coplin said he knows and works with the couple. He is thankful that nobody got hurt in the fire.

“That just escalates it to that much worse,” he said. “The potential that there’s a completely different crime trying to be committed here.”

Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies want to talk with the man who was seen running away from the crime scene early Monday morning. That person has been described as a person of interest in the case.