Seattle Fire battles stubborn house fire on Lake Wa Blvd E

Posted on by

Firefighters worked to extinguish a house fire on the shores of Lake Washington Saturday afternoon near Viretta and Denny Blaine Parks. Crews were called to the scene just before 3p and were still trying to control the wall fire more than 40 minutes later. 

The address listed for the response at 128 Lake Washington Blvd E is a 10,000 sqft home worth nearly $8 million, according to sales records.

 

17 thoughts on “Seattle Fire battles stubborn house fire on Lake Wa Blvd E”

  1. Property records indicate that it is owned by an LLC of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II–Queen of Canada. And there were about 11million in improvements since the purchase–it’s now worth nearly 20million dollars.

    It’s a curious scenario–particularly given how many units have responded to the fire so far–
    an air unit, a marine investigation unit, 5 engines, 2 ladder units, 2 medic units, 1 aid unit, the deputy chief, 2 battalion chiefs, a couple support units…

  2. Actually SFD usually sends this many units to any house fire. Check Seattle 911 to confirm. The marine unit is a bit unusual though. It does seem like a lot of resources compared to other cities.

  3. Maybe the MAR refers to the marshal, rather than marine.

    Is there a code available somewhere that is a key to the various SFD apparatus that respond to incidents. Some are obvious – E, L, Dep, Chap, etc. – but some are not. Scott published one several years ago, but it was not complete.

  4. Mar does refer to fire Marshall. According to the fire apparatus called out, there were no marine units.

    Liz

  5. This house appears to be a 3 story concrete house that is almost 11,000 square feet. That is essentially a commercial structure. The differences and the type of fire attack/tactics used between a house this size and your normal 2000 square foot stick built house are HUGE! It appears that this was a full response (Normal for ANY house fire) followed by a couple of additional units, which would be appropriate due to the size. The Marshall response is needed to determine the cause of the fire/fire origin if the company officer or incident commander is unable to determine it. Basically they are the fire investigator.

    When the first poster talks about how curious/interesting this incident it, it leave an almost conspiracy theorist taste in the mouth. Even if more units are added to this house, than a normal house, think about it….. It’s almost 11,000 square feet! It makes sense!

  6. full list of incident types here http://www.seattle.gov/fire/mr/TypeCode.htm

    Unit Codes as follows
    Dispatched Units Key:
    Code Apparatus
    A Aid Unit
    B Battalion Chief
    E Engine
    L Ladder
    M Medic Unit
    Example: E10 means Engine 10 was sent to the incident.

    MAR is Fire Marshal. PTRL 4 is one of the fireboats, R1 is the Heavy Rescue. SAFT is a Safety Chief. AIR is a compressed air unit that refills/exchanges compressed air bottles for the fireman’s airpacks. I’m not sure of the Hazmat team code but I believe it is either HZMT or HMR1.

  7. Right, those are most of the commonly used keys for dispatched units.

    There are also some others that are pretty easy to guess at:

    DEP (Deputy)
    STAF (Staff car)
    CHAP (Chaplain)

    I have also seen MARVAN, which seems to relate to water locations, and COMVAN, which I haven’t figured out. It seems to me I have occasionally seen a few others that I can’t quickly remember.

    I was just hoping that there was a complete list somewhere. SFD’s web site seems to include only the most common ones. “Fireman,” do you know?

  8. Here is a little help from a CDN story back in August 2008

    STAF: Staff (for large fires)
    COMM: Communications Unit

  9. COMVAN would be a Command or Communication Van set up for large scale/Long term incidents. A significant Marine response would be a likely scenario where you would see this. Or a massive collapse or true High Rise Fire.

    MARVAN is a Marine Van which holds additional equipment needed for Marine Firefighting, Confined Space (Which is essentially what a Shipboard fire is) and de-watering.

    A correction from above, Patrol 4 is NOT a Fire Department related boat, that is a Seattle Police Harbor Patrol boat. Rescue 1 or R1 is the Technical Rescue apparatus (Think structural collapse, Trench, Confined Space High Angle Rope etc). HAZ1 is the Hazardous Materials Response van, which holds everything necessary for the Fire Department to Identify, Isolate and Contain a HazMat incident.

    At times you may see an identifier called a RIG. This is a Engine Company and Ladder Company that are “Married” together and will act as a Rapid Intervention Group. These are the units that are assigned to rescue firefighters should the need arise.

    This incident seems to have had additional units respond in, but again it’s an almost 11,000 square foot concrete structure. So that would be more than appropriate.

  11. Fireman,
    Could you provide any insight into the 6 per and 14 per responses? It seems as though these are aid calls with weapons associated but any insight into the guidelines for dispatching these responses would be appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Butch

  12. Tom.
    I think you have a good follow up on this one. Very much worth the investigation and reporting!

  13. There’s a Canadian Consulate in Seattle on 4th Ave. I wonder if this home is owned by the Canadian Gvt and it’s the official residence of the Consul General?

  14. Butch,

    A Med 6 and a Med 14 (Might as well add Med 7) are all Medical events. The MED or AID describe the initial response (Whether or not the incident is BLS or ALS) and the 6, 7, or 14 are based on the type of injury and the number of personnel.

    As an example, when you have a heat attack in Seattle and you relay that information to 911, you get a MED 7, which is 2 Fire apparatus (or 1 Engine/Ladder and/or 1 Aid car) and a Medic Unit. The 7 Denotes the minimum number of personnel on scene. MED 6 just allows for 2 aid units.

    For general knowledge, the City of Seattle is lucky. All Engines and Ladder company’s are staffed with a minimum of 4 personnel each. Aid units are staffed with 2 and Medic units with 2 medics (Sometimes they have students or M.D’s riding out to get experience but they don’t count as staffed personnel because they aren’t certified medics).

    A MED 14, is confirmed as 2 severe ALS patients (example: 2 gun shot victims, or 2 heroin overdoses). This allows firefighters and medics adequate personnel to save more lives.

    I am happy to dispel any rumors or confirm any, But please remember my moniker, I am just a fireman!

  17. I think you looked at old records. Go to Seattle Parcel Data. It hasn’t belonged to Canadian Consulate for a long time. It is private residence.