(Photo added 12:42 am, sent by neighbor ‘Bunnyfer’)
11:54 PM: Fire reported on 35th SW near Roxbury. More to come.

(Photo by Tony Bradley)
12:10 AM: The fire is reported to be under control.

12:36 AM: Christopher Boffoli‘s on the scene for WSB. (His photos are above and below this paragraph.) He says the house is single-family but is believed to be vacant (as mentioned in comments, below). Note that 35th is closed at Roxbury, if you have to drive at this hour. No word of any injuries.

12:41 AM: Christopher has spoken with Seattle Fire spokesperson Kyle Moore. He reports that Moore confirms the house was vacant, and Christopher adds this from Kyle’s briefing: “No occupants. No firefighter injuries. Engine 37 arrived to a fully involved fire in the basement area. Ladder 11 followed and ran water from an 8 inch main on 35th. They have the fire pretty much tapped now. But because the fire burned out and weakened the floor, it is too dangerous for them to go inside at this point. Kyle says they’ll probably sit on it all night just to be sure.”

1:41 AM: Added video from Christopher. Your editor here just went over to check the scene – 35th closed on the south side of Roxbury but you can turn onto Roxbury, either way. We’re adding more photos, too. The main that Kyle mentioned to Christopher – important note because of the water challenges brought to light by the August 27th fire a mile or so south – is about a block from the house that burned.

(Photo by Tony Bradley)
Here’s where the line ran from:

(Photo by Torin Record-Sand)
(The maps shown when the City Council was briefed on the August fire last month show this area is not slated for water-main upgrades since it’s close enough to one with sufficient “fire flow.” When we checked back, firefighters were still up on the roof with chainsaws, ventilating the house, and it’s still smoldering. No word on the cause, but that usually takes some hours to determine.

2:49 AM: Commenters had pointed out early on that the home was for sale. Most recently, one noted that a sale was listed as “pending.” We looked up the current ownership; the house is federally owned, following foreclosure. Meantime, we uploaded a short clip received from Benjamin, in the early moments of the fire:

ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT: Investigators still haven’t figured out how the fire started, according to this update on the SFD website.

If you’re in or near Arbor Heights and wondered about the sirens – Seattle Fire sent a big response to what was reported as a garage fire on 31st near 97th (map), but canceled most of the units within minutes, declaring the fire “tapped.”

(UPDATED EDITOR’S NOTE, 12:11 PM: The archived meeting video is now available, so that’s what you’ll see if you click “play” below. We are working on the wrapup story with new information from the hearing and from followup questions afterward.)

10:20 AM: Click “play” to get the live feed from City Hall, as the City Council’s Public Safety and Education Committee is briefed on the August 27th Arbor Heights house fire near 41st/102nd, and what’s been done, and what is still to come, to fix the water-supply problems it exposed –

We have been following this story since the fire itself, including these stories:
*August 27: The fire (accidental; gutted a house and injured a firefighter)
*August 28: Fire’s cause
*August 29: ‘After-action review’ promised
*Sept. 9: Three followups
*Sept. 15: Hydrant upgrades promised
*November 4th: Hydrant upgrades almost complete
*December 5th: City Council committee briefing planned

Last night, we reviewed the documents available online for this briefing, including something new and major: A plan to upgrade water mains. Here’s our story; we will write a new one with added information after today’s briefing, and we will also make a note here when the briefing is over.

11:02 AM: It’s over. Nothing major beyond what we summarized from last night, though some additional summarizing did emerge – when the water-main upgrades are over in a year-plus, all of Arbor Heights will be within 1000 feet of an 8-inch water main, which is the minimum standard these days, and 87 percent will be within 500 feet. The review of the August fire showed that 2,000 feet of hose had to be rolled out to get to an 8-inch water main supply. More to come!

12:12 PM: The archived video is already available – so we have substituted it above. Followup story still in the works.

As we reported previously, the City Council‘s Public Safety and Education Committee is scheduled to be briefed tomorrow on the big Arbor Heights fire from last August 27th.

(WSB video from 8/27/2011)
House fires don’t usually lead to council briefings, but in this case, multiple fire hydrants near the home were unable to adequately supply firefighters, who as a result could not get a handle on it quickly. Three documents are linked from the City Council agenda tonight, looking ahead to the briefing by Seattle Fire and Public Utilities leaders. While the first two focus on the fire response and what went wrong (as well as what went right), the third lays out a schedule for proposed water-main improvements to be built next year.

The tale of what went wrong at the fire scene is complex, going beyond the water-supply problems, though they are described in detail. The hydrants nearest the home were described as “dead” and “frozen” in the first document: “A sufficient water source had still not been located 12 minutes after the first unit arrived on scene.” And then: “32 minutes into the response, despite efforts to supply them from three different directions, E32 still didn’t have a viable water supply.” It wasn’t just the hydrants – they called for the “hose wagon,” but it turned out to be unavailable; they looked for the “hydrant main map book,” but discovered it was “no longer carried on the Chiefs’ apparatus.” Finally, after laying hose all the way to 35th SW – almost half a mile of hose, says the document – “35 minutes after the first rig arrived on scene, a positive water supply was established.” Ultimately, says the second document, “105 firefighters, officers and medics” were involved in the response.

The third document outlines the water-main-improvement plan; as we have reported in followups since August, in some cases SPU was able to put larger hydrants atop water mains that could provide better pressure with better equipment, but in some cases, the water mains themselves are too small – and have been since before the city annexed the area more than half a century ago. Per the briefing document, the process for the water-main improvements will begin with a community meeting next month. We will find out more when the council committee is briefed toward the end of its 9:30 am meeting tomorrow (if you can’t go, you can watch via the Seattle Channel, cable channel 21 or seattlechannel.org online – we’ll stream it here when this agenda item comes up).

Just never know what you’ll find in a Seattle City Council committee agenda. Reading through the ones available early today for meetings coming up this week, we discovered that the council’s Public Safety and Education Committee, chaired by Councilmember Tim Burgess, is scheduled for an “Arbor Heights Fire Briefing” when it meets at 9:30 am this Wednesday, last item on the agenda. The scheduled briefers are Seattle Fire Department Chief Gregory Dean and Seattle Public Utilities director Ray Hoffman. This goes back to the August 27th fire that destroyed a home on 41st SW (WSB coverage here); hydrant problems hampered firefighters’ ability to make a quick full attack on the flames. The hydrants and water system are SPU’s responsibility; we have followed up with them several times since the fire. Two days afterward, they promised an “after-action review”; two weeks later, we had information about hydrant testing; then there was a promise of larger hydrants where water-main sizes permitted, and we updated the status of that work last month. (And in a side note, an SFD investigator discussed the fire at length during October’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting.)

Wednesday’s council-committee meeting is at City Hall downtown and will be live on the Seattle Channel, cable 21 or online.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: SFD has now announced the cause. New story here.)

(WSB photo by Tracy Record)
ORIGINAL 5:35 PM REPORT: On our way to house-fire call in the 10200 block of 41st SW. Black smoke can be seen from more than a mile away. (added 5:43 pm) Near the scene. Police and fire are blocking 102nd near Arbor Heights Community Church. More shortly.

(Video added 6:16 pm)
5:50 PM UPDATE: We’re right next to the house with spectators. It is fully engulfed in flames. A neighbor says she does not believe the residents were home.

5:58 PM UPDATE: Still burning. A tree between the house and its neighboring home caught fire and the people next door are fighting desperately to make sure their home doesn’t catch fire too.

Dozens of neighbors are watching and at times cheering the firefighters. The neighbor who believes the homeowners weren’t here when it started says that she got a knock on the door, telling her the neighbors’ home was burning. No word of any injuries so far. Neighbors say it appears the hydrants might have been having problems initially – we’ll be checking on that with SFD.

6:16 PM: We’ve just heard a firefighter’s radio crackle with the word the fire is under control. No word on the cause yet, they’re still actively fighting it. But it is more smoke and charred wood now, still some flames visible inside. We just added video from the height of the fire, and will add a newer photo in a moment.

6:26 PM: They’re still pouring water on the fire. Other media just now arriving. The sun’s rays are making an eerie pattern through the trees that surround this house.

7:05 PM: Fire Chief Gregory Dean has just briefed the media. He says a firefighter suffered burns and was taken to Harborview. He confirms that there was a problem with hydrants and with water pressure; also, fire units took longer to get here than they normally would have, because primary responding companies were tied up with aid calls.

(Photo by Tony Bradley)
The first truck to arrive was a ladder truck, which doesn’t carry water. Subsequent companies used their water, and finally a line was laid to 35th SW to get water at full pressure. This was officially a two-alarm fire. We have the fire chief’s full briefing on video and will upload it as soon as we can. (added – here it is:)

Absolutely no indication yet what caused the fire; investigators can’t even get into what’s left of it, yet. still many, many firefighters still on scene. As for other hydrants in the area – we asked SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore; he says Seattle Public Utilities is responsible for hydrants, so we will have to ask them about what they plan to do to make sure that other hydrants in the area are OK. Thanks also to everyone who has sent photos and video – we will be reviewing them when we get back to HQ shortly.

ADDED EARLY SUNDAY: Some of the other scenes, from both the fire location and from far away, as people noticed black smoke rising high into the air – pictures ahead:Read More