Fire at 38th & Admiral
Thanks to the tipster who texted us to make sure we had heard about this big callout – fire in a house at 3809 Admiral, affecting traffic in the area for a while too. One WSB reader says she was dining across the bay and could see the smoke and flames from there, at the height of this fire. 10:03 PM UPDATE: TV reports say the house is gutted inside, the couple who lived there got out OK, and investigators don’t know what started the fire. Meantime, here are two photos sent to us by WSB readers who snapped them as smoke poured from the house — first one from Mark (thank you!!!!):
Second photo is from Jess (thank you too!!!!) — you can really see how traffic was blocked off on Admiral (if you didn’t happen to get caught in it yourself):
Here’s some video of crews mopping up — mostly flashing lights — we’ll check back on the scene in the morning too:
New information: La Rustica closed at least one night
We just called to check; the person who answered the phone at La Rustica said they’re closed tonight for sure and not sure how many more nights beyond that, because of today’s fire. More pictures, courtesy of reader David Schneider (thank you!!!).
Fire at La Rustica
Big fire/rescue callout so we rolled down to check. Fire crews are still there; heavy smell of smoke in the air, no external damage visible. No details yet about what happened; will be checking later how this affects business for tonight — let us know if you hear sooner.
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Fauntleroy fire follow-up
A preliminary Fire Department report confirms the fire last night at the Endolyne Garden building in Fauntleroy started in the garage. That’s where most of the damage is confined so far as we could tell from stopping by for a look this morning (that’s ceiling material dangling down onto the cars):
The west-side entrance canopy for Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant also burned:
5:42 PM UPDATE: We have just been forwarded e-mail about the restaurant’s status — it was not damaged by the flames but was closed for today “to clear out the smell of smoke”; owners were considering opening on a limited basis tonight, but DEFINITELY plan to be fully open tomorrow so Guadalajara can participate as planned in the fundraiser for the Fauntleroy Fall Festival — as a sandwich board sign across the street from the restaurant reminds passers-by, a portion of tomorrow night’s proceeds from Guadalajara are to go toward next month’s festival.
Fire in Fauntleroy apartment/condo/restaurant building
All those sirens were for a fire at Endolyne Garden, the bright blue apt/condo building kitty-corner from the Original Bakery/Endolyne Joe’s business block — same building with Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant on the ground floor.
No, those aren’t flames in the center, just fire-truck lights — which lit up the night (along with the huge floodlight atop one of the biggest trucks) for blocks around. Witnesses we talked to say they saw flames, but fire crews got it out fast. The scanner report we heard earlier about a possible car fire being involved seemed borne out by this:
What you see there is smoke curling from some sort of smoldering wreckage just behind what’s left of the wall in front of the ground-floor garage, adjacent to the restaurant — we will check on its status first thing tomorrow. No ambulance/aid car activity while we were at the fire scene, so here’s hoping nobody got hurt.
Big fire callout
Sirens are piercing the early early morning air here on the south side of WS: it’s a call to a building at 9212 45th SW. Not sure yet how serious; one scanner report said there’s a possible car fire at the address. More to come.
4132 Cali fire: Ruins removed
A week and a half after the arson that destroyed the in-progress building @ 4132 Cali and forced nearby residents out of their homes, what was left of the charred ruins is now gone — driving to The Junction, we just noticed the demolition crew clearing the site (photo @ right is as close as we could pull over). Still no report of anyone under arrest; 800-55-ARSON if you have any tips that might help investigators.
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4132 Cali arson, four days later
If you also happened to be wondering: Seattle Police tell us this morning they have nothing new to report on last Friday morning’s big fire, just that they are “actively investigating” it. Also, they are still choosing not to talk publicly about what evidence they found that led investigators to call it arson. If you have any idea about who’s to blame, or saw anything (as police put it) “even remotely suspicious before, during, or after” — the hotline to call is 800-55-ARSON. (Photo below is one we didn’t get around to posting in the fire aftermath — chillingly charred sign nearby.)
Fire semi-drill
A nerve-wracking time tonight for the Delridge complex hit by the last big-ish WS fire just last weekend. Here’s another eyewitness account and pix from Sage K:
Our SFD has been hard at work lately; there was another response to the Longfellow Creek Apts, D building tonight around 9 pm. 6 fire trucks rolled up and Delridge was blocked off around the complex. 3 fire trucks were quickly sent on their way, and the remaining 3 had things quickly under control as it was only smoke and not a fire. They soon rolled up their hoses, let people back into the building and were on their way. The scene was clear as of 9:30 pm. On an interesting note a Metro bus 120 got waylaid on the side of the road where it had pulled off. The hoses were right in front of it. The bus with passengers had to wait their until the road was cleared.
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Fire investigation update, Friday night
More pix and a little more information on the aftermath of the 4132 Cali fire: First photo below, looked like investigators were wrapping up at the scene a little while ago. Slog reports the Seattle Fire Department told them that the ATF involvement is routine for “large fires” like this and that so far there is no reason to suspect anything criminal, though the official cause has yet to be announced. Second photo below is from Christopher Boffoli, who talked with firefighters when he visited the site and reports the ones who were hurt are doing OK; in addition, he was told the firefighter who reportedly had a broken leg, actually just has a dislocated shoulder.
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Working to find out how the fire started
New photos from the fire scene: Investigators are there, looking around the nearby buildings as well as the burned condo project itself. Several people who lived in apartments to the south are still staying somewhere else because it’s too dangerous. No updates yet on how this started. This will have interesting ramifications for the block in general, since besides the project that burned, several other nearby sites are slated for construction.
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Fire aftermath
This morning the Seattle Times says three firefighters were taken to the hospital, one with a possible broken arm. This is the scene this morning and the smoke odor hits you from a block away. 8:12 AM UPDATE: Fire Department quote here, new construction goes up “like a campfire” (as Garrett’s photos show) … By the way, Cali IS open past the fire scene; watch out for looky-loo slowing.
The southwest corner of the building had the most damage.
Update on big fire north of The Junction
We are just back from going down to check out the big fire near Cali/Genesee; Cali is blocked between Oregon and Dakota because of the huge response. The burned building is out of view but a neighbor who says he made the 911 call told us at the scene that it’s the under-construction condo building on the east side of Cali and at least one of its floors collapsed as it burned (comments on our first post below would seem to confirm that). He says there were huge flames for a while. The entire blocked-off zone is full of fire units (more than two dozen called out, according to the city 911 site); it appears at least one person got hurt — we saw someone on a stretcher wheeled into an aid car. You can expect the street to stay blocked off for quite some time while this is investigated; we will check back after the sun comes up to see how much damage was done.
Delridge fire this morning
Lots of notes about the fire this morning at Longfellow Creek Apartments (5915 Delridge, same area as one of the recent shootings). 11:30 AM UPDATE: This photo just in from WSB reader Joel (thank you!); more info beneath it. 2:56 PM UPDATE: Some video here.
ORIGINAL 10:26 AM POST: Here’s WSB reader Sage K’s eyewitness account from the inbox (thank you to everyone who wrote!):
A fire started around 4 am in the Longfellow Creek Apartments @ 5915 Delridge Way SW. The fire was contained to D building where it started and no one was seriously hurt. Apparently the fire started when someone on the ground level was smoking in bed and set an oxygen tank on fire. The fire-starter got some minor burns to their feet from trying to stomp the fire out and was taken to the hospital for treatment. But no one else had injuries. The fire spread up the back side of the building through the balconies and to the roof. The roof was vented over the fire and damage was mostly contained to those 2 apartments right above the flash point. Several people will be displaced; the Red Cross was on hand to help them with accommodations. A Metro bus was brought in for the displaced people to wait in out of the cold until everything was sorted out and they were able to be escorted in to gather some belongings. I saw around 8 fire trucks, 2 command vehicles and a command post along with a few aid cars. By about 8am most of the scene was cleared and vehicle access was returned to Delridge. I live in (a different) building of that complex as was lucky enough to be as far as possible from the fire. People here were really good about helping out their neighbors in their time of need.
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