UPDATE: Body Found Following Fire Investigation

Enumclaw/Fire District 28 firefighters found a body following a fire investigation Thursday afternoon at a property at 1839 Loraine Street. 

The firefighters responded to reports from neighbors of an explosion and then a fire that erupted in a shed storage area, Police Lt. Eric Sortland said.

Neighbor Cindy Munnell, who lives two houses away, said she was upstairs in her home, near a window that faced the location of the incident. "I heard an explosion and glass shattering and ran downstairs to my back yard and heard a man screaming," she said. "I stood on my patio chairs to see over the fence, but I still couldn't see him."

Munnell said there was just smoke - no fire - at the time when she called 911 at about 2:45 p.m. to report both the explosion and the man screaming. While she was on the phone, "a fire started to be visible and was getting larger each second."

A press release issued Friday by Enumclaw police indicated that some witnesses reported seeing the victim run from an area of an adjacent building towards the portion of the building which was on fire. As the victim entered the building, witnesses heard a second explosion.

As firefighters worked to combat the fire, investigators from both Enumclaw fire and police determined that because of the explosion, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be called in as well as both a precaution and to assist in the investigation, he said.

Additionally, according to Friday's press release, a fire investigator from Tukwila was brought in as part of the fire department's participation with Region 4, Fire Investigations.

It was at this time that firefighters also discovered the body in the shed storage facility behind the main residence; it was badly burned, Sortland said.

Investigators do not have a positive identification of the body at this time. The King County Medical Examiner took possession of the body to conduct an autopsy to determine cause and manner of death.

Meanwhile, fire investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fire, the press release said Friday. 

Once those two pieces of information have been gathered, Sortland said, police can begin to investigate the case.

At present, the discovery of the body is being treated as a death investigation and there is no cause to believe that the fire was arson, he said.

Firefighters responded quickly to keep the fire from spreading to the main residence which was extremely close by, fire spokesperson Carina Davis said. They were able to confine it to just the shed and a portion of a back porch cover.

Data from the King County Department of Assessments indicates that the property is owned by Tony Pedrini. As of Friday afternoon, the phone number connecting to the residence has been disconnected.

Editor's Note: Were you at the scene? Do you have photos of fire or police on scene? Share them with us here at Patch (with credit to you, of course) by uploading them to this story or emailing april.chan@patch.com. Or do you have more to report? Let us know in the comments.