The home of a Town Center restaurant owner was engulfed with towering flames early Friday morning, leaving behind a charred house and a lingering stench of burnt wood along East Mercer Way as Islanders began to celebrate their Fourth of July holiday.

The burned home belongs to Bennent's Pure Food Bistro owners Kurt and Leslie Dammeier and their three children. The Dammeier's waterfront home is located at 3854 East Mercer Way. Reached on his cell phone while driving back to the Island, Dammeier said his wife, oldest son Max and their dog were in the home at the time the fire broke out.

"I was actually heading to a baseball tournament in Olympia with my two younger kids," said Dammeier. "We had left just 10 minutes before it happened."

The fire started around 9:30 a.m. and fire fighters continued to extinguish embers hours later. Dammeier said his family was OK and there were friends and family they could stay with. He also said he immediately received several offers of help from fellow Islanders.

"We are fortunate to have a place to go and to have the 40 or so offers to stay. The community of Mercer Island is very welcoming when bad things happen," Dammeier said.

Firefighters from Mercer Island, Bellevue and Seattle responded to the call. The Mercer Island marine patrol also responded as it could be seen spraying water at the home from the shoreline. According to Mercer Island Fire Deputy Chief Steve Heitman, the cause of the fire remained unknown immediately after firefighters put out the blaze. Dammeier said firefighters told him the fire probably started in the attic and was electrical-related. He said he was also told there was a possibility it was fireworks that had started the blaze. As Heitman stood in the closed road near several fire trucks, he told reporters from local television stations and members of the press the fire was believed to start on an upper floor. Most of the entire roof had burned away, he said. Views from the lake showed the entire upper story destroyed with several windows busted out.

Dammeier said the house looked to be at a "substantial or total loss." The appraised value of the 7,000-square-foot home is $5 million.

Several hours after the fire broke out, the smoke continued billowing into the neighborhood as a rehab fire crew from Seattle began dismantling the remaining embers in the home.

"It was so smokey I couldn't even see down the street," said neighbor Greg Dehaan. "I thought it was my house as I drove around the corner. It was not a good feeling. My heart stopped."

Dehaan said his house, which is not too far up the road along East Mercer Way from the Dammeier's, had burned down about two years ago. He said it has only been a year since he moved back into his remodeled home and was scared when he first saw there was a another fire in the neighborhood.