Photo: Alex G. Seidel

Sandeep Kaushik, a spokesman for the Burner campaign, said the fire broke out about 7:45 a.m. at the home on West Ames Lake Dr. Northeast near Carnation.

Burner credits her 5-year-old son Henry for helping get everyone out alive. She says he noticed smoke in his room and started yelling to wake up the family.

"Henry is absolutely the hero in all of this," Darcy Burner said. "He did absolutely the right thing. He could have reacted very differently than he did, but he did exactly the right thing. He woke up, he woke us up, he got out of the house."

The family tried to rescue their golden retriever, but they had to run for it when the ceiling began to collapse. They all made it out safely.

Firefighters found the dog in the back bedroom standing in a foot of water but otherwise OK.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Firefighters from several nearby departments responded to the 911 call and found flames on all sides of the house and coming from the roof.

There were few fire hydrants nearby, so crews had to use tankers to bring in water needed to battle the blaze.

As flames moved through the structure, firefighters made the decision at 8 a.m. to fight the fire defensively from the outside.

Reichert narrowly defeated Burner in 2006 to win a second term, and the 8th District race in the suburbs east of Seattle is one of the most closely watched in the country.

The 8th District has never elected a Democrat, but voters favored Democrat John Kerry in 2004.

Burner, a former Microsoft manager, has continued her campaign against Reichert since losing in her first political bid in 2006. She has sought to tie him to the Bush administration, and criticized his support for the troop "surge" in Iraq.

Reichert, a career law-enforcement officer in the Seattle area and former King County sheriff, points to his experience and his centrist credentials, including instances when he's broken ranks with Republican leaders.