A notice of a $10,000 reward has been posted on a 23rd Ave house after a Seattle Fire Marshal determined that an early Saturday morning blaze inside the structure was intentionally set. Below is the Seattle Fire Department brief on the incident.
The 2:54 AM fire was extinguished quickly and damage was contained to a back bedroom where the blaze started, according to SFD. Red Cross responded to provide shelter for the home’s occupants.
The 810 square-foot house was built in 1910 and is directly across the street from Garfield High School. It is owned by a Haile Yitref of Bellevue who acquired the property in September 2011. Across the alley to the south stands the 23rd and Alder duplex where police cleared a group of occupiers this January. That property, by the way, was also remains in the possession of Denmark West.
The reward notice is posted by a foundation that supports the program. Anybody with information is encouraged to call 1-800-55-ARSON. A full arson investigation is underway.
Seattle Fire Investigator Determines Early Morning House Fire is Incendiary
October 20—A Seattle Fire Investigator determined an early morning fire at a Central District home was determined to be an incendiary fire. The Seattle Police Department’s Arson Bomb Squad is conducting an investigation into the fire.
The first 911 call came into dispatchers at the Fire Alarm Center at 2:54 a.m. reporting a fire in a room of a home located in the 300 block of 23rd Avenue. Firefighters discovered a fire in a back bedroom of the home. Crews were able to contain the flames to the back bedroom. Flames were extinguished within 14 minutes.
The first floor of the home sustained smoke damage. No one was injured. The Red Cross was called to provide temporary shelter for the occupants of the home.
The damage estimate is $40,000 to the structure and $8,000 to the contents.
A few weeks ago someone had set a pile of debris on fire on the planter strip on the north-east corner of The Mann school(almost in the street on 25th). The burn marks and ash can still be seen. Then about a week after that someone had set a pile of phonebooks (at least it looked like phonebooks) on fire in the alley one block north of The Twilight Exit. Looks as though we might have an arsonist in the hood.
As a neighbor to the incident at 23rd and Terrace, I can tell you it isn’t likely that this arson and the ones “20+ years in the CD” mentioned. The folks in the building at 23rd and Alder hang out with the guy at the house that was attacked, and there were alot of borderline fights on the stoop toward the end of the summer, with plenty of partying till 4am. Word has it that the arson was related to one of those arguments. The residents apparently know who the person is, but nobody is coming forward with the info. One would think that $10k would be enough.
I agree! there was a big bang before the fire, the same bang was heard a couple nights before that. (a day or 2 before the hit and run on 23rd and alder… haven’t seen anything about that!) the partying goes on all year, we look forward to rainy nights because we know it is going to be a quiet night. There’s a lot of shady stuff going on on that corner
That whole part of the block facing 23rd is a mess. The sad part of it all is how many kids live there with those ‘adults’. I’ve walked past that place and seen two dudes and a girl on the porch of the yellow house getting to third base on each other at nine in the morning in broad daylight. I’ve seen lots of posturing to rivals on walking the other side of the street, what looked like the beginnings of a brawl. Plenty of blunt smoking. Those kids take it all in, and they’ll be the ones we’re worrying about in 10 more years.