Holiday weekend fires: Fifth of July busier in West Seattle than Fourth of July

With the holiday weekend ending, we checked the log for the big picture on fire calls to which SFD responded. The log doesn’t have a call category for “fireworks fires,” so we can’t say for sure how many of these were caused by people setting off fireworks. But these are the calls in our area that were categorized as “fire”:

FRIDAY, FOURTH OF JULY

If you noticed that burned, foamed (and obscenely graffitied) car parked on the west side of the 4500 block of California SW in The Junction, it caught fire just after 11:30 pm Friday. It was still there during this morning’s Farmers’ Market, and still there as of late this afternoon (when we researched the call after a tip). Other Fourth of July fires from the log:

1:23 am: “Brush fire” 28th/Trenton
10:16 am: “Bark fire” 7000 block Beach Drive
4:18 pm: “Brush fire” Puget Blvd./Delridge Way
9:39 pm: “Illegal burn” 61st/Alki

SATURDAY, JULY 5

That photo sent today by David shows the area charred Saturday night in what was categorized as a “brush fire” at 28th/Thistle (Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex), dispatched at 8:25 pm. Overall, a more fiery day/night in West Seattle, according to the SFD log. Other calls labeled “fire” on Saturday:

1:14 am: “Brush fire” 34th/Admiral
4:15 am: “Rubbish fire” 59th/Lander
7:02 pm: “Bark fire” 4400 block California SW
8:59 pm: “Brush fire” 6400 block 31st SW
9:43 pm: “4 Red” (midsize non-medical dispatch) 5900 block 31st SW
10:26 pm: “Brush fire” at 3429 45th SW (Madison Middle School’s address)
10:48 pm: “Brush fire” 9000 block 8th SW
11:28 pm: “Brush fire” 28th/Barton

SUNDAY, JULY 6

And here’s what’s on the log through a short time ago (the “brush fire” call just closed out):

2:41 pm: “Shed fire” 5300 block 47th SW
6:33 pm: “Brush fire” West Marginal/Highland Park Way

We have no way to break out the many medical calls to which SFD responded (always a far busier call category for firefighters than actual fires), so we don’t know whether any local calls were fireworks-related, but Harborview Medical Center did send us and other regional media a general total of fireworks injuries HMC had seen (as the regional trauma center):

As of 9 a.m. today, clinicians at Harborview Medical Center had treated 47 people with fireworks-related injuries during the July Fourth holiday weekend.

The injuries are characterized as:

18 involving hands
13 involving eyes
8 involving other body areas
8 involving multiple areas (such as hands and eyes)

No structure fires were reported in our area over the holiday weekend, aside from the “shed fire” listed for Sunday.

3 Replies to "Holiday weekend fires: Fifth of July busier in West Seattle than Fourth of July"

  • 1994 July 6, 2025 (9:28 pm)

    And the craziness continues July 6th with more loud booms this evening starting about 7:30……someone is making money off this boom business.

  • Frustrated July 7, 2025 (6:59 am)

    Yep – looks about right.  I called in the fireworks at the SWComplex and Denny – clearly both were ignored.  Oh well – hope the school and city has funds to fix the properties.  

  • HEROS July 7, 2025 (9:36 am)

    THANK YOU Seattle Fire … you are true heroes and deeply appreciated! Thank you! ❤️ and thank you to the blog for taking the time to help us realize how many fires they had to deal with. That’s a lot.! I am grateful we didn’t have a giant serious life-threatening fire.

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