FOLLOWUP: Here’s what SFD is now saying about Morgan Junction fires

| Crime | West Seattle fires | West Seattle news

With the help of that video, Seattle Fire investigators have now ruled at least one of Morgan Junction’s recent fires as arson. As reported last night, the video shows the start of last Sunday night’s fire along an alley off the 4300 block of SW Graham. We had been asking SFD about the recent fires and noted that the video had emerged. SFD spokesperson Kristin Tinsley told WSB today, “The video has been shared with both SFD fire investigators and SPD for any follow-up that may occur. From this footage, SFD fire investigators have made the determination that the fire on 9/11 was intentionally set.” But that’s the only one ruled as arson so far; Tinsley says the Monday fire at California/Eddy is “not being investigated as suspicious after all,” and last night in the 6500 block of California SW, though the initial dispatch was labeled “dumpster fire,” she says “no evidence of a fire was found by responding firefighters.” She also recommends that the property owners on Graham file police reports if they haven’t already – the block had Saturday and Tuesday fires as well as the one on Sunday shown in the video (for which a police report has been filed, 22-920094). We also asked her if there’s anything people can do to try to protect their property from fires, intentionally set or otherwise; she recommended this link on the SFD website.

Finally September 16, 2022 (7:20 am)

About time the blog have some PR about the string of fires (and not just the single fire).

WSB September 16, 2022 (9:05 am)

Don’t know what you mean by “PR” but this is our third story.
https://westseattleblog.com/2022/09/followup-video-appears-to-show-at-least-one-of-morgan-junctions-recent-brush-fires-being-set/
https://westseattleblog.com/2022/09/seattle-fire-full-response-in-morgan-junction/

We also reported on the Fauntleroy Park fires
https://westseattleblog.com/2022/09/neighbors-worried-about-fires-in-fauntleroy-park/

Thanks again to the residents who surfaced concerns in both cases, as these are small fires and investigators weren’t even sent in most if not all of the cases (usually the first step toward identifying arson is for the SFD investigator, Marshal 5, to be called in, and then they would in turn notify SPD). – TR

Concerned Citizen September 16, 2022 (9:19 am)

So the blog wrote one story about the fires in the two block radius of Morgan Junction and it wasn’t until all the comments in that one story about there actually being four fires there, that the blog posted a second blurb about the fires and acknowledged that there was more than one fire at Morgan Junction.

WSB September 16, 2022 (9:45 am)

Yes, like most news organizations, community concerns and tips (which can include comment discussions) are how a majority of stories get started. SFD responds to many incidents in the area every day and we listen for the major ones. The Sunday night fire initially drew a “full response” and that’s how we wound up covering it. The others were single-engine callouts. – TR

2 Much Whine September 16, 2022 (10:10 am)

I don’t get it. The West Seattle Blog alerts us to a situation and
provides video and three different posts and all the comments are about
how they didn’t meet your expectations? I think you two readers might
want to re-think your approach. Did you see anything in the Seattle
Times? How about King 5? You should look at this resource for what it
is – an awesome neighborhood tool for sharing information. I expected
to see comments on here about troubled youth or perhaps someone that
recognized that kid or maybe how the fires were close to spreading to a house – certainly didn’t expect people to be so critical
of the news source. Let’s focus on getting this person some help (or locking them up if that’s what’s appropriate) instead of complaining about people that are not in any way responsible for the fires. Shaking my head.

Truth September 16, 2022 (1:29 pm)

Actually the multiple Morgan Junction fires were reported on many other sources real time or the day of. The blog is more limited in what they choose to post.

Jethro Marx September 16, 2022 (3:27 pm)

Yes, the blog is generally a source of news that reports facts without trying to sensationalize the story. Hopefully a local youTuber or TV personality will soon have breaking speculation on whatever kind of WSB/arsonist conspiracy and coverup theory several of you seem to be hinting at. Concern is a strange feeling though, it’s true!
miws September 16, 2022 (6:39 pm)

“Truth”, and where are your links to these “many other sources”…? —Mike

George September 16, 2022 (6:03 pm)

The West Seattle Blog does awesome work and is an enormous community resource. Unless you have worked in journalism, it may be hard to understand how difficult and time consuming diligent fact-based reporting really is, which is what they do. I am grateful every day for the WSB.

Resource Man September 16, 2022 (7:36 pm)

If anyone is bothered by what the WSB posts, I strongly encourage them to become a sponsor and help provide them with some additional finances to hire more resources or maybe just start their own blog. WSB, thank you for all the community work you do.

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