VIDEO: ‘Encampment fire’ response in southeast West Seattle

4:36 PM: Thanks to Kelsey for the video. If you saw the billowing dark smoke in southeast West Seattle earlier this afternoon – that’s the source, near the 1st/Cloverdale Highway 509 interchange for West Seattle and South Park. SFD dispatched this as an “encampment fire” response; the last unit left around 4:06 pm, just under an hour after the initial dispatch. We’re checking with SFD for any additional information.

5:23 PM: SFD spokesperson David Cuerpo tells WSB, “Our firefighters extinguished an encampment fire where multiple tents or tarps were involved. No injuries were reported.”

flimflam July 12, 2023 (7:16 pm)

Geez. That billowing black smoke must be awesome for the environment 👍🏻. Thanks campers…

Jeff July 13, 2023 (9:05 am)

Thank developers and capitalists for allowing things to be so expensive that people have to live outside. Do not blame the effects, blame the cause.
- flimflam July 13, 2023 (9:33 am)
  
  Nah, I’ll choose the realistic cause – drug addiction, for the most part, with some mental illness mixed in (which may be cause by the drugs or certainly worsened by them).
  - Brian July 13, 2023 (10:43 am)
    
    If you’re going to identify drug addiction and mental illness as the cause, you can also keep going and identify the causes of those issues (Hint: It’s naked capitalism.)
    - WW Resident July 13, 2023 (4:49 pm)
      
      The people complaining about capitalism on here is like the meme pic of the girl with the “smash capitalism” sticker on her Apple laptop with the Starbucks drink sitting at the feet. Just absolutely no self awareness they’re enjoying the fruits of it and act as if some socialist utopia in their imagination could be reality.
  - Ron Swanson July 13, 2023 (12:36 pm)
    
    Your “realistic” explanation doesn’t really jive with facts such as states like West Virginia having some of the highest addiction rates but lowest homelessness rates (hint: housing prices are not as irrelevant as you think they are)

Mike July 12, 2023 (9:05 pm)

A very unpleasant “camp” – filthy.

937 July 12, 2023 (9:10 pm)

Are people still OK with this?

Letting less fortunate live in abject squalor- polluting the environment, polluting their minds and bodies?

Yes? Thought so.

Jeff July 13, 2023 (9:04 am)

Build more affordable housing and give people a better safety net. The longer we stick with capitalism the longer this happens.
DC July 13, 2023 (9:20 am)

What is your answer? Throw them all in jail? Have them hop from encampment to encampment never able to rest? The people asking for ‘sweeps’ without actual solutions are the only ones OK with the homeless living in perpetual abject squalor.
- Josh July 13, 2023 (2:29 pm)
  
  The answer is obvious. Tax the rich. There is no reason we should have to rethink things like the light rail to Ballard because rich peoples yachts are too big to fit under the bridge on their way to the ship works on lake union all while allowing rampant untreated mental illness and drug addiction. Nobody and no company earned the right to have mega yachts and space ships while we all choke on their scraps. Tax the rich.
  - Jim July 14, 2023 (2:29 pm)
    
    This tax the rich nonsense really needs to come to an end. How about we stop allowing developers and foreign investors causing this to get away with it?! How about the city council stop putting the dollar signs in their eyes for property taxes over what’s best for the city/county?! You could take every cent from the richest people in this country and you could run the government for about 8 months That’s the ENTIRE government

Chuck Jacobs July 12, 2023 (10:02 pm)

This campsite burned down a little over a year ago. It was still fire scarred when they moved back in a couple months ago.

1994 July 12, 2023 (10:10 pm)

Looks like that was in or near the triangle space between the off ramp southbound from 509 and the general southbound lanes of 509? I noticed up in that space, where it was more or less level, a large shack structure and a large tent. It is NOT ok for people to live like this. They need to accept shelter space and not be allowed to set up living in such conditions.

Jeff July 13, 2023 (9:06 am)

There is only finite shelter space. And I rather not have fascism where we force people what to do.
- 937 July 13, 2023 (2:29 pm)
  
  So you are willing to sacrifice people on the altar of “politics”?
  
  I am not.

Admiral-2009 July 12, 2023 (10:34 pm)

Met Market has job openings $19 hour to start with benefits. Back in the day people pooled their resources and lived with roommates.

K July 13, 2023 (1:12 pm)

$19 an hour isn’t even enough to rent a room. “Back in the day” housing was affordable with a minimum wage job.
- flimflam July 13, 2023 (10:33 pm)
  
  Not everyone can afford to live in Seattle, NYC, LA, etc. This is just reality. Kicking and screaming against “the system” won’t make this fact untrue. Nobody is owed a free or low cost apartment, house. People that want to live here and can’t afford their own place need to share with roommates or find a different city.
- Byron James July 14, 2023 (7:00 am)
  
  $19 per hour works out to $39,000.00 per year. You can easily live in Seattle with that.
  - KC July 17, 2023 (5:13 am)
    
    Excuse me…. But no. No one can “easily” live in Seattle on 40,000 a year. Sure, perhaps some with social capital can survive on that but you can’t apply that logic to everyone. All ya’ll truly don’t have a damn clue, sheesh.

anonyme July 13, 2023 (5:35 am)

How many of our taxpayer dollars have been squandered fighting fires in illegal encampments or due to illegal fireworks? And who has been held accountable for either? My guess: no one.

Josh July 13, 2023 (2:34 pm)

I agree. People like Gates and Bezos and their class should be held accountable for dodging their fair share of taxes all while using our publicly funded infrastructure to grow their wealth. If our public institutions were appropriately funded there would be drug and mental health treatment and case management available for all the bums and basic housing and healthcare for anyone. Then our firefighting and police dollars could be better spent on protecting our infrastructure and investigating violent crime including rape, and wage theft as well as enforcing traffic and other crimes like illegal fireworks laws.

Marcus July 13, 2023 (6:21 am)

Through them in jail for illegal camping and starting a fire, let them detox under supervision. Then provide the resources we are spending millions of tax dollars on so they do not return to this horrible human condition.

sad July 13, 2023 (7:55 am)

Is this the same area as the camp in this national news article??https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12294005/Seattle-homeless-encampment-installs-SWIMMING-POOL-vagrant-residents.html

WSB July 13, 2023 (9:48 am)

No, it is not. We have reported on that encampment multiple times before (and will be following up again), it’s the one across from Arrowhead Gardens – the one in this story is down the hill and across the freeway. (That’s an almost-funny hysterical rewrite of a KOMO story – “the affluent Highland Park neighborhood”? )

Scarlett July 13, 2023 (8:07 am)

Why don’t you all go back to calculating your stock portfolio gains and take your phony concern about the homeless with you? You’re not fooling anyone.

very sad July 13, 2023 (10:36 am)

That is such an obnoxious comment. I doubt your “concern” is worth a whole lot if you’re one of the people that thinks it’s fine for folks to live in camps like this. I do calculate my stock portfolio gains (and losses) and have a lot of concern about this but sadly we as a society don’t seem to be making any headway. I’m not doing much myself, for sure, besides dutifully paying my taxes and trying to raise my kids to be caring human beings, and taking care of family and friends who need help. We do a lot of charitable work with food banks and shelters, but I know that’s just a tiny little bandage.Ultimately the anger in comments like this make everything seem even more hopeless. How can our society make progress with so much anger and fighting.
- Scarlett July 13, 2023 (8:36 pm)
  
  You do what you can do. If that means raising your family, paying your taxes, donating to charity, so be it. Best wishes and all that.
  
  I and few like myself will continue to fight to stop what we see is a frightening future for this country. I’ll say this to no one in particular: To characterize this future in terms of “right” versus “left” or “progressive” versus “conservative” is to trivialize the magnitude of the upcoming struggle because it will be a battle for personal autonomy and sovereignty. Control, after all, doesn’t have a political label – it is just Control.

aa July 13, 2023 (9:28 am)

So hard to listen to the news about how clean the Sodo area has been for the Allstar activities giving the impression that the City is turning around when all around it is still a mess. I hear theres a pool now at the Myers Way hell hole.

DC July 13, 2023 (9:30 am)

Zero concern for how the fire might affect the humans who live there from people in the comments. Not one of you would react this way if the fire was in someone’s detached single family home. A depressing statement on the state of society that a tragedy for homeless people is seen as an opportunity to make a political statement or complain about how it will affect them personally.

Jesse July 13, 2023 (7:59 pm)

THIS! ↑

The Earl July 13, 2023 (11:10 am)

If you’re commenting on this. Have you actually driven by and looked at it. This goes far beyond people just needing housing.

ltfd July 13, 2023 (8:16 pm)

In all of the larger unsanctioned encampments there is a hierarchy controlling the activities within. There is fencing of stolen goods, trade in weaponry & drugs, trafficking of humans, and a thriving protection/intimidation racket. As a society, we have much work to do to support displaced & addicted individuals. However, society also needs criminals to be held accountable for their crimes – no catch & release. Unsanctioned, large-scale encampments, which are breeding grounds for human misery, need to be swept & prevented from reappearing.

Sorry, comment time is over.