There’s a big fire response right now at 19th & Pine St., at the site of some brand-new townhouses. Although I don’t know for sure, I don’t think that the homes were occupied yet. Let’s hope that’s the case.
Update: Helen Fitzpatrick from the Seattle Fire Department says that the call came in at 5:30am for smoke coming from the under-construction townhomes. Firefighters arrived to find fire on the second floor, and that it had burned down into the first floor and into the walls and ceiling. There was no power to the building, and no injuries since it was unoccupied.
There were some comments on the radio that it was a “set fire”, i.e. arson. However, Ms. Fitzpatrick says there’s no reason to believe that’s the case right now. Fire investigators are on the scene and should know more later this afternoon. Damage is estimated at $35k.
Update x2: Investigators have determined that this was an accidental fire that had been smoldering in the space between the 1st & 2nd floors. Although the damage was too extensive to pinpoint an exact cause, the most likely candidate is either a discarded cigarette or oily rags.
If so, it seems a bit odd to me. First off, I counted the ones I saw, and there were 4. They did not appear to be to the south of my home in the general direction of Pine and 19th. They appeared to be to the East. Also, they looked like police helicopters- not fire-related helicopters. Do firemen have helicopters? If they did, wouldn’t they be used to spray the fire?
I could see red and blue flashing lights on the helicopters leading me to believe they were police helicopters- correct me if I’m wrong but please let me know what info you have.
It looked to me like the cops had someone surrounded. Plus, you say the call came in for this fire at 5:30 AM- I could swear the helicopters were out there before 5. It was 5 when I looked at the clock. Let me know what your thoughts are and if in fact this fire occured on the morning of Wednesday the 20th.
The fire was at 5:30am on Wednesday, and the news helicopters were overhead at the time with cameras focused on the fire response. The location of the helicopters can sometimes be deceiving because their cameras are so good that they can be a long distance away and still get a close-up view of the ground.
We don’t have any info on police activity at that same time, but its possible that something else was going on too. But the helicopters were definitely of the tv news variety.