Update: High Point house fire ruled accidental, blamed on wiring

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(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli)
ORIGINAL 10:08 PM REPORT: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is at the “fire in single-family residence” call at 30th SW/SW Bataan (a High Point street so new it’s not even on Google Maps, but we did find this). He says it’s a fairly sizable fire, lots of smoke visible, no flames. Photos and more info shortly.

(WSB photo by Christopher Boffoli)
10:22 PM UPDATE: From Christopher at the scene: “Firefighters from several companies seem to have the blaze extinguished. The building that was on fire is unoccupied new construction. Firefighters seem to be taking down a ceiling on the first floor of the structure to expose the source of the fire.” He adds that the house that caught fire appears to have been close to completion, but not done yet, with stickers still on the windows. From the scanner — the incident commander is going to start clearing some units to leave the scene. Also, the online fire-call log has revised the address to 6423 30th SW (map). Christopher also confirms, nobody hurt. 10:50 PM UPDATE: Seattle Fire spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen has now released an update: First firefighters on the scene saw flames through the house’s windows; the fire was mostly concentrated on the second floor – still no word on the cause or the dollar amount of the damage, till investigators can get in and look around.

(photo by Tony Bradley)
11:50 PM UPDATE: In her latest media update, Vander Houwen says fire investigators have determined this was an accidental fire, caused by an electrical-wire problem. Damage is estimated at about $50,000.

M. February 22, 2009 (10:17 pm)

I heard some of the sirens. I hope everyone is ok.

Siobhan February 22, 2009 (10:25 pm)

I live on the corner of 35th Ave SW and Morgan St SW and there were firetrucks comeing from every direction. Those houses over in the new neighborhood are fairly close together too.

Hope everyone got out and is ok.

WSB February 22, 2009 (10:27 pm)

Nobody inside, apparently – the house was under construction, though according to Christopher, appeared to be ALMOST complete – TR

Ken February 22, 2009 (10:33 pm)

that address is not even on king county GIS maps.

Battan used to be a street that was destroyed in the regrade. I have not seen any indication it was reused.

The properties in the west side of the 6400 block of 30th seem to be owned by SHA and do not even have addresses yet as far as king co goes.

Some of the builders are not turning in their required reports to the county though and SHA better not have anyone living in a house without even an address.

Ken February 22, 2009 (10:34 pm)

6423 30th ave sw is the fire call out address.

WSB February 22, 2009 (10:34 pm)

While you were filing that comment, I was just posting above that the online fire log has now revised the address, after almost an hour, to 6423 30th SW.

Ken February 22, 2009 (10:42 pm)

I am surprised the street is even open. There was a fence a couple of weeks ago when I last went down 30th near the park.

It is sunday night and we all suspect there is at least one firebug in the neighborhood. The 4th of July (06?) fire in two homes in final construction was at 5632 30th ave.

WSB February 22, 2009 (10:44 pm)

That was ’07 … I remember because that was the last time we took a vacation (before the site went commercial), and I was chagrined not to have heard about it till hours after it happened.

WSB February 22, 2009 (10:58 pm)

Ken – Tony Bradley sent a photo addressing your point – at this moment I am not sure if it will work into the story but I uploaded it so you can see it:
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/firebarricade.jpg

yeahright102 February 22, 2009 (11:00 pm)

Ken-I’m Tony… I just got back from the scene and it appears that several of the streets accessing the area were closed (in fact several fire units ended up having to turn around and find other ways to access the location). The first in company (engine 37) had to knock down a street closed sign on the north end of the block and enigne 11 (second in) had to knock down the sign on the south end).

Mookie February 22, 2009 (11:10 pm)

“Battan used to be a street that was destroyed in the regrade. I have not seen any indication it was reused.”

What was the date of the regrade? I’m curious; looks like the development and work in that area started in 2003, and I just located a Seattle City Council bill passed in 2004 that “…renamed a portion of Southwest Eddy Street between 31st Avenue Southwest and High Point Drive Southwest, to Southwest Bataan Street…”

Did post-2004 development then wipe out that street?
??

cjboffoli February 22, 2009 (11:16 pm)

Mookie: I assumed Ken was referring to the Denny Regrade.

WSB February 22, 2009 (11:24 pm)

Demolition started in 2003, per some SHA pages … this photo set is interesting
http://www.seattlehousing.org/redevelopment/high-point/photos/

glocson February 22, 2009 (11:46 pm)

Looks like the neighbor kids discovered matches. Oh well no one got hurt and the fire created some jobs.

WSB February 22, 2009 (11:52 pm)

Actually if you missed the update I just added to the report above, the fire department has ruled this accidental – electrical wire problem.

glocson February 23, 2009 (12:34 am)

Yeah….the wiring “malfunctions” on a Sunday night? Mm hmm. I’m sure the insurance company will look a little further into it. Also, did any neighbors see any contractor trucks at the house today? I’m not a fire marshal but it seems pretty fishy. i.e. the real estate market sucks/not very many construction jobs out there.

Scott (no, the other Scott) February 23, 2009 (7:18 am)

Also interesting that on the radio, the incident commander specifically repeated that the house was new construction with “no electrical service” yet. This is something of some concern to firefighters, as they spend quite a bit of time hacking into walls and ceilings ensuring they get every last ember out cold, and thunking an axe into a live wire is bad news.

Obviously there is wiring inside, but if it wasn’t connected yet, it’s hard to see how it could have started the fire. There’s always the possibility the reports on the radio were wrong but you would imagine it’s something they try to be fairly certain about before making such announcements.

Hey–we could start our own Encyclopedia Brown-style sleuthing business here!

cjboffoli February 23, 2009 (8:55 am)

Scott: It looked to me as though the house actually DID have electrical service. They were at the point in construction where it was all buttoned up. The windows were in and, from what I could see, all of the wallboard was up and primed. So the electrical was done and the builder probably had it turned on so the various finish trades would have power for their saws and things. I also saw two workers from Seattle City Light arriving just as I was leaving to back and file my images.

WSB February 23, 2009 (9:33 am)

And actually this reminds me that the scanner — while I was listening and updating the site, with Christopher reporting for us from the scene — included the crew saying, after the incident had been going for a while, “City Light has been called and they are going to pull the meter.” E.g., shut off the power – TR

Scott (no, the other Scott) February 23, 2009 (10:22 am)

I stopped listening after they reported it tapped, so presumably they discovered it at some point after that. Sounds like Chris did a better size-up than the battalion chief!

Sorry, comment time is over.