CALDWELL — A state lawmaker from Caldwell and his wife lost their home to a fire on Monday night.

Rep. Kent Marmon and his wife, Sylvia, safely evacuated their home after it caught on fire just before 10 p.m. Monday, which led to a heavy firefighter presence for about six hours.

The Caldwell Fire Department responded to the two-alarm structure fire and found “a significant fire concentrated” in the back of the Marmon home, according to a CFD press release. Although fire crews acted quickly to contain and control the blaze, the home sustained “extensive damage and is uninhabitable.”

The 74-year-old home, which sits on the 1900 block of Fillmore Street across from the College of Idaho and is in the city’s historic district, has been lived in by the Marmons for four decades. The state lawmaker’s campaign yard signs can be seen outside the home.

“Caldwell has been my home all my life. We’ve lived in that house for 40 years. We have no plans to move anywhere,” Kent Marmon told the Idaho Press.

While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, Kent Marmon said that the fire department believes it could have started under a small fridge in his outdoor kitchen that he built 15 years ago.

He wrote in a Facebook post that he replaced the fridge almost two years ago after his old one stopped working.

The fire spread through the cabinets, then up to the patio cover of the home — which is partially built with bricks while the main floor is made of wood — then along the eaves on the south side and into the attic, Kent Marmon said.

The couple went from spending their night watching TV to rushing out of their home with their dog and sitting across the street surrounded by their caring neighbors as they watched numerous firefighters do everything they could to stop the fire. Kent Marmon said in his social media post that “it was amazing watching them work.” They did lose two of their cats which were unaccounted for as of Tuesday.

“We didn’t know what was going on until we heard glass breaking in the bathroom next to the room we were in watching TV,” Kent Marmon said. “When we went to look, flames were all over the south side of the house. A big picture window in the living room broke out, and flames were inside the house, along with lots of very black smoke.”

Marmon said he was told that it was fortunate they escaped the house when they did because their exit path would have been impassable if they waited just a couple of minutes longer.

Next-door neighbor Nicole Bradshaw made the 911 call before the couple escaped their residence when she noticed the fire through her window. Bradshaw said she and her 22-year-old son acted immediately and began spraying the side of the Marmon house with their garden hoses shortly before fire crews began arriving to prevent the fire from spreading further.

Surrounding neighbors, including Bradshaw and Marmon’s mother, whose home sits directly behind the burning house, were asked to evacuate their homes out of precaution — all neighbors, along with their homes, were unharmed.

“You quickly go, ‘what’s important in life?’” Bradshaw said she asked herself. “And as you’re almost seeing your house go up, and you’re like, ‘OK, what are the most important things’ and the most important is the people.”

The Marmons were supported by their neighbors, College of Idaho students who provided them with blankets and clothing items, and the fire department’s chaplain, whose visitation and prayer left the couple feeling comforted.

“We are so thankful for the outpouring of support and prayers,” Kent Marmon said.

Fire crews stayed on scene until about 3:30 a.m., according to Kent Marmon. CFD was assisted by fire crews from the Middleton Star Fire and Nampa Fire districts, as CFD provided mutual aid just an hour before to the Nyssa Fire Department for a three-alarm commercial structure of fire on Commercial Avenue in Nyssa, Oregon — about 26 miles from the Caldwell fire — the press release stated.

Kent Marmon, a Republican, was elected to the Idaho House of Representatives in 2024 and is currently running for reelection. He’s slated to face fellow Republican Carlos Hernandez in the May 19 primary.