UPDATE: Brush fire chars quarter-acre near High Point Pond

| High Point | West Seattle fires | West Seattle news

2:29 PM: If you’re seeing smoke from a distance – it’s a brush fire in High Point, near the pond, on a grassy slope.

Firefighters are here and taking care of it but the smoke was visible from a couple miles away. More to come.

2:38 PM: Engine 36 is the crew on scene and the flames are out, the smoke has dissipated, but they’re soaking the charred slope in a big way – as neighbors are observing, it’s really dry here, even just over the green embankments by the pond itself. This was stopped before it could spread to any buildings, and no injuries are reported. No info yet about how it started.

10:01 PM: Still awaiting the cause info but we do know that it burned a quarter of an acre and came perilously close to a fence. SFD planned to check back at the scene tonight to be sure no hotspots remained.

trickycoolj July 15, 2015 (2:38 pm)

Yikes. The one unmowed section in that park too. Any info on street closures? It’s getting close to time to go home for the day. Might change how I approach the neighborhood to get to my house.

WSB July 15, 2015 (2:45 pm)

Tricky, they had coned off Juneau by the pond but the firefighters are over on the other side of the pond and I don’t think it will stay coned for long. We just left and the security guy was on his radio with somebody discussing whether to un-cone.

trickycoolj July 15, 2015 (2:48 pm)

Thanks WSB! My heart sank when I saw this, I use that park very frequently and know exactly how tinder dry it is and how tall the grasses/brush are in the non manicured areas. Everyone’s nightmare to see a fire in the neighborhood when they’re at work.

WSB July 15, 2015 (2:56 pm)

These days there are a couple brush fire calls a day and most close before we even see them on the 911 log – in this case, Patrick was picking me up from a meeting with somebody at C & P Coffee and he looks east and says, “That looks like smoke.” Brush fire call on High Point Drive, so we just kept driving toward it and it was still crackling by the time we got to the pond. Will be substituting better photos shortly – the ones up first were just from my iPhone while he walked over to the other side.

Ewknutty July 15, 2015 (3:54 pm)

Oh no!!! One of my favorite walking spots in the morning. Hope the duck family who lives at the pond is okay!

Sarge July 15, 2015 (5:23 pm)

Thank you, thank you thank SFD!!!
This fire was just a few feet from our home.
Kids have been lighting fireworks off on the park every day since July 3rd.
I can only hope it raises awareness to the danger of fire an how quickly it can get out of control.
Parents please take your kids fireworks away. 4th of July is over.

WSB July 15, 2015 (5:28 pm)

Just a note, though, we don’t have any information yet as to what started the fire. We asked SFD’s public-info officer earlier but he hadn’t yet been able to reach the crew. At this point, since it’s after business hours, we probably won’t have that information until tomorrow. – TR

dp hi pt July 15, 2015 (9:58 pm)

I have seen young teenagers smoking while sitting in very dry grass in high point within the last week. When asked to move to a less flammable area they were agreeable but very slow to do so and it involved flicking ashes off numerous times directly above the tinder.