PENDLETON — A North Hill house fire completely engulfed one home while significantly damaging another on the evening of Tuesday, June 30, but no residents were hurt in the blaze.

Pendleton Fire Chief Jim Critchley couldn’t yet provide a definitive cause of the fire on the 10 block of Northwest 10th Street.

“There’s so much damage to the front it’s still going to be under investigation,” he said. “From reports, I’m guessing it’s accidental.”

The Pendleton Fire Department arrived at the scene around 6:40 p.m., and had the fire contained about an hour later.

By the time the blaze was extinguished, Critchely said upon his first inspection there was “significant damage” to two homes and at least minor damage to another. Firefighters’ abilities to initially contain the flames was critical to protecting the neighborhood as windy conditions complicated firefighters’ efforts throughout the evening and threatened nearby homes.

“There was so much heat on that front porch that the first thing we needed to do in this case was just put as much water to get the heat down so I didn’t lose the entire block,” Critchley said.

Tanner Callaham, a resident of the house that caught fire, said he was asleep when the fire started. Woken up by yelling from his girlfriend, he woke up to find his porch in flames.

Between his family and a family that lived in the house’s basement apartment, Callaham said there were four adults and two children in the house, and all were able to evacuate safely.

Callaham’s aunt, Susan Chamberlain, said the house belonged to her sister, Callaham’s mother, and had been in the family for some time.

Having lived in the house herself for a time, Chamberlain said it made her “sick” to think that the house was gone.

Also able to safely evacuate was the Campbell family, who saw their home significantly charred by the fire next door.

Alcira Campbell said she was driving home from work when she saw the smoke emanating from the area where her house was.

With her two young children and their grandmother at home, Campbell saw the house next door on fire, its flames reaching her family’s property as she got closer.

Campbell ran up to the house just as her family was leaving out the back door, and everyone was able to leave the residence safely.

Critchley said the only known injury immediately after the fire was to a firefighter from the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department, who had to receive minor attention after a piece of roofing fell on him.

“Everyone did a real good job keeping track of each other and looking after each other,” Critchley said.

While at least two dogs were brought out from the area of the fire after the flames were contained, Critchley said he didn’t know if there were others that had yet to be found.

“I don’t know the status of the pets,” he said.