Deadly Chelan Hills Fire under criminal investigation

We begin with one person dead, homes destroyed in a 10,000 acre wildfire burning out of control in central Washington. Now the question is who sparked it? The Chelan Hills fires only 20% contained tonight with crews working to put it out. FOX 13's Jennifer Dowling spoke with one family that lost nearly everything in that devastating fire and the Douglas County Sheriff for an update. Jennifer, what can you tell us? The Douglas County Sheriff tells me that someone started this fire along Highway 97 on or around midnight on July 4th and that fire quickly spread. He says now this has turned into a criminal investigation. It was just absolutely devastating. I'm sorry. Aaron Posey holds back tears when sharing the story of the fast moving fire that wiped out her family's home in McNeil Canyon. Her son Ethan home alone when officials told him to evacuate. It's devastating. It's heartbreaking. Ethan grabbed some small items and save their mama dog and her puppies shown here along with the family's labradoodle. This is Miss Haley. 20 minutes after Ethan left, Aaron says flame swept through the house when they were finally allowed back in. This bus was still burning on the property. I'm just very thankful that my my son got off the mountain. He was out safe, you know, but we lost everything. The way the fire landed into the canyon in two different areas, it basically created a firestorm. Sheriff Tyler Kale says the fire killed a person who slid off the road while trying to evacuate in a truck stranding him and fire conditions also put fire crews in danger. They had to get to a safe zone and spray themselves with hoses to keep to keep the heat level down to where they could make it through. He fears there may be more victims. Once you add the loss of human life, you add the damage to residences and personal property and then even putting the firefighters at harm. And that that definitely raises the stakes to the type of criminal charges that we're looking at for the suspects involved in this situation. Aaron believes she knows the neighbor who died and that was very heartbreaking. Unfortunate. Um, the only thing I can think is that, you know, all the smoke because it was really hard to see up there. Her friends and loved ones started a fundraiser for her family right now. Basically, we're homeless. She's just counting her blessings. They made it out alive. You gotta keep trekking forward. You can't go backwards. Sheriff Kale says tomorrow assessment teams will be going with search dogs parcel by parcel to determine that everyone is accounted for in this fire reporting live in Seattle. Jennifer Dowling FOX 13 news.