A man was taken to Harborview Medical Center after suffering “critical” burns in a Newcastle house fire.

The blaze in the three-story home on the 6400 block of Lake Washington Boulevard Southeast began at approximately 1:30 p.m., Bellevue Fire Department spokesman Lt. Troy Donlin said. The owner of a Shell station nearby noticed smoke, and heard a detector go off. The owner saw people fleeing the home.

Inside at the time were a man and his 16-year-old daughter. The daughter made it safely out of the home. The man suffered severe burns, and he was found in the parking lot of the Shell station.

“Somehow, the owner of the home ended up in his vehicle with critical burn injuries, and then he became unresponsive,” Donlin said.

The daughter escaped from the first floor of the home unarmed.

Donlin did not know the official cause of the blaze, but the daughter told officials that the man had been burning boxes in an upstairs sun room at the time of the fire.

The man’s wife was away at Bellevue Square at the time of the fire, Donlin said.