Fire Destroys Edgewood Avenue Home

A fire engulfed a two-story vacant rental property on Edgewood Avenue early this morning, knocking down power lines and destroying the two-story home. The blaze also caused many residents in the densely wooded neighborhood to fear for their own safety before firefighters contained the fire to the house.

Fire crews were called at 3:30 a.m. to 777 Edgewood Ave., located at the end of Edgewood on the eastern slopes of Panoramic Highway and Mt. Tamalpais State Park. Engines from Mill Valley Fire, Marin County Fire's Throckmorton Ridge station, and Southern Marin Fire responded to the scene, as did fire investigators from Larkspur and Novato fire departments.

When firefighters arrived on the scene at 3:42 a.m., the house was fully engulfed in flames, according to Marin County Fire Capt. David Carr.

"This fire had probably been going on for a long time before it was discovered because of its location," he said.

Fire crews were delayed briefly because the fire struck a power line, which then fell onto nearby telephone lines. Firefighters were forced to wait for PG&E crews to shut off power to approximately 1,200 homes to prevent live wires from inhibiting their work on the blaze.

The fire was fully contained and power was restored within an hour, Carr said.

The rental property is owned by Tim and Carla Salz, who live in an in-law unit on the same lot. Several neighbors called in the fire before they did, Tim Salz said, because they heard the popping and sparking of power cables before spotting the blaze.

"People were in our front yard and we realized the house was on fire," Salz said.

Their tenants had moved out on Sunday and they were preparing to paint the house before the new tenants moved in.

"We'd bought the paint and ordered new windows and all that," said Salz, 62. "Now I guess we won't need any of that stuff."

Investigators said early signs pointed to a tarp that was laid across a floor heater as the cause of the fire. Initial estimates put the damage at nearly $1.7 million.

Salz said that he was simply happy that nobody was hurt and that the fire didn't spread to the rest of his neighborhood.

"We'd always assumed that if there was a big fire like that, the whole mountain would go up," said Salz, noting that many of his neighbors had packed bags when they spotted the fire assuming they'd have to evacuate. "This went about as well as you could hope. The most important thing that didn't happen is that other places didn't catch fire. The mountain didn't catch fire. That apocalyptic scenario never happened."