Update: ‘Exterior’ fire at home over Beach Drive

4:48 PM: A full house-fire response is at a home in the 3800 block of Boyd Place SW. According to scanner traffic, it’s an exterior fire, no one’s home, and some of the initially dispatched units are being dismissed. We’re en route to take a look.

5:08 PM: Our crew is there; this is a few blocks uphill from Cormorant Cove, south of Alki Point. Firefighters are on the deck of the home. Lots of fans are in use – usually used to ventilate after smoky fires. Earlier scanner traffic had said nobody was home.

5:31 PM: Whatever damage was done, wasn’t major, and wasn’t visible from the street. The house is habitable, we’re told. Investigators are working to figure out what started the fire.

7:03 PM: SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore says investigators blame the fire on spontaneous combustion of paint rags, with damage totaling $12,000.

thank you September 20, 2011 (8:04 pm)

Being a single not so smart in the handyman dept. I could totally see myself causing such a fire by leaving combustable rags out on a warm day.thanks for the coverage. After the arbor heights fire caused by the firepit being stored inside I wised up and took the barely used lighter fluid soaked charcoal out of the thin cheap bbq which rests on my old wood porch. Anything else known to go caboom that we single city raised ladies may not think of on our own?

Genesee1 September 20, 2011 (8:42 pm)

My husband is the one who was walking by this house when he heard a crackle, and then a crash of breaking glass, and then thought to himself that the flames were way too close to that house to be a BBQ grill. He drew attention to the situation and asked neighbors that showed up to call 911. When in doubt, we need to follow our gut feeling and react! Had he not stopped, the entire house may have been engulfed by flames in a matter of minutes.