(Monday night photo by Tony Bradley)
New information this morning about last night’s fire in the 9000 block of 22nd SW, southeast of Westwood Village (WSB coverage here). We checked with Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Dana Vander Houwen to see why rotating fire crews had kept watch on the scene overnight – not the case with most fires – when this one had been extinguished fairly quickly. She explained that there was some concern this might reignite, because of what investigators now know about its origins: As the incident commander told us at the scene last night, it started as a small kitchen fire – but that was hours earlier. SFD was not called; the resident thought the kitchen fire was completely out, no problem. Instead, it reached up into the attic through a light fixture, where it smoldered for hours until the big burst of smoke and flame that led to the fire call just after 7 pm. And as a result, Vander Houwen says, it did a lot more damage than might have been the case if firefighters had been called to help with that first, small fire: “No matter what, even if you think it’s a small fire – call us, we’ll send a crew, and they can take a look. Fire can get to places where you can’t necessarily see it.” Damage from the attic fire that ignited last night because of that first kitchen fire is estimated this morning at $70,000.