Bolsa Ave. Home Destroyed in Early Morning Blaze

Flames devoured a two-story hillside home at 175 Bolsa Ave. as firefighters fought back the two-alarm blaze that broke out around 3 a.m.

The house in the Blithedale Canyon hills above City Hall, along with a car and nearby utility pole, caught fire, according to a report in the Marin Independent Journal. It was brought under control by about 3:38 a.m. and out within an hour, but crews remained for cleanup. 

The house has been boarded up, and will most likely be torn down, said Mill Valley Fire Capt. Bill Shardt.

Tianna Wimmer, the chair of the city's Emergency Preparedness Commission, lives two houses up from the fire on Bolsa. She said she was awoken by her daughter, who noticed that the power was out due to the fire. 

Wimmer said the elderly resident of the home was visible shaken by the incident but mostly unharmed. He was able to escape the house when fire began.

"He lost everything," she said. "It was quite a fire."

Firefighters from Mill Valley, Tiburon, Southern Marin, Larkspur and Corte Madera responded. Two Mill Valley firefighters were treated with minor injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Wimmer noted that her Bolsa Ave. neighbors stepped up to both inform one another, take steps to protect neighboring properties, help those adjacent property owners evacuate while firefighters fought the blaze and arrange for the elderly resident to have a place to stay since his home is uninhabitable.

The city's next Get Ready class is Nov. 3.

- Bay City News Service contributed to this report.