Local man dies in house fire

Benjamin Hills An accidental fire claimed the life of Benjamin Hills early Wednesday morning, Nov. 11.

The 2003 Stanwood High School graduate was temporarily staying at a friend’s house on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

Upstairs tenants of the triplex on 11th Avenue E. and East Republican Street smelled smoke and called authorities around 2:30 a.m.

Dana Vander Houwen, spokeswoman for the Seattle Fire Department said firefighters found the critically injured man in the room where the fire started. Investigators believe the fire was apparently started by smoking in bed.

Hills was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where a spokesperson said he died.

Marianne McGarry- Bloom, Hills’ mother, said the family is in a state of shock, but they’re alright.

“We are just so surrounded by love,” said McGarry- Bloom. “What a testimony to this community.”

Their home has been flooded with food, flowers and hugs in a spontaneous rush of support.

“Talk about a little town that’s good,” she said.

She described her son as compassionate and intense; qualities apparent in his love for music.

Hills was an accomplished drummer in the Seattle music scene after leaving Stanwood.

“When the world got too intense for Benny,” said Mc- Garry-Bloom, “he got out his sticks and played, and he played, man.”

Although he was a “starving artist” in the music community, she said, her son was surrounded by a “phenomenal group of young people who cared for each other.”

According to his mother, he loved the energy of Seattle.

She described a young man gaining a solid foundation on life in recent years.

“I could hear the peace in his voice,” she said.

Working for the school district, McGarry-Bloom had the chance to peek over her son’s shoulder during a writing assignment in high school.

“He had to write about the most influential person in his life,” she said. “Benny wrote about Father James, an Irish priest who helped raise him. The reason: Father James taught him that no matter what, he was a loveable person in God’s eyes.”

McGarry-Bloom remembered thinking to herself at the time, “You got it Benny.”

The family celebrated Hills’ life with friends at a scheduled birthday party on Friday in Seattle. Hills would have turned 25.

A funeral will be held today at St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Stanwood, 4 p.m.

“His life was short,” said Hills’ mother. “But, God, was it good.”