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.
Statue sneak peek
Huge thanks to WSB reader Angela for sending us this photo she grabbed about an hour ago as the recast Lady Liberty made a brief cameo appearance ahead of Tuesday night’s event.
BULLETIN: Alki statue homecoming details, and more
Just in from the office of West Seattle resident City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen: When the recast Statue of Liberty returns home to Alki one week from tonight (as first reported here last month), it will not be going into the Bathhouse, but rather onto the old pedestal, temporarily. The event will happen at 6 pm Tuesday (9/11) and will be hosted by Mayor Nickels and Councilmember Rasmussen. Rasmussen aide Brian Hawksford tells WSB, “The statue will be temporarily placed upon the original pedestal until the new plaza pedestal is constructed in early 2008. There will be an announcement of additional new city money for the new plaza/pedestal project.”
35th closure
Huge thanks to several WSB readers who e-mailed us at this late hour to tell us about 35th being blocked off near the High Point Library. According to LyndaB, the problem apparently has something to do with a dangerously leaning power pole she had noticed earlier in the day; City Light’s on scene as well as police.
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.
Big fire callout
Anybody up late, we are hearing the sirens here – two miles away – and seeing the online 911 for a big fire callout at Cali/Genesee. If you’re closer, let us know what you see. We’re not sure how close we’ll be able to get.
New Water Taxi dock vision officially announced
You heard about it here first last month, after the Alki Community Council got briefed on it … tonight, supporters have just made their official announcement, press release and all, about the proposal to move the Water Taxi to Port of Seattle land next to Jack Block Park, with lots more room than its current Seacrest home …
… The idea will have to make it past a lot of governmental entities, to say the least. Ultimately, the people behind the proposal think it would be part of the newly created King County Ferry District. Click ahead to read the full text of tonight’s press release, hot out of our inbox …Read More
Delridge crash update
As of minutes ago, Delridge is still blocked off between Holden and Thistle, more than five hours after a police car collided with a Volvo station wagon. The P-I has posted some details of what led to the crash. We watched the Volvo get towed from Delridge/Thistle at 9:15 (night-visionish photo below), but the wrecked police car was still in the street further north down Delridge. 10:30 UPDATE: Still closed. That’s our last in-person check for the night; if anyone discovers it open in the hours to come, please post that in the comments here.
Crash blocks Delridge
An e-mail tip tells us Delridge is blocked off at Thistle because of an accident — city 911 site shows a big response – we will check out shortly, more info to come. 4:47 PM UPDATE: First photo from the scene. 5:00 UPDATE: Channel 7 tv says an officer is injured in this wreck, but will be ok. 5:45 UPDATE: The closure now extends westbound on Thistle to 22nd, in addition to closing off Delridge. 7:05 UPDATE: Checked again, and this time officers were closing Delridge at Holden on the north; it’s still closed till just before Cloverdale on the south.
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.
Bulletin: Design Review Board keeps Petco project on a short leash
Just back from three hours at the Southwest Design Review Board meeting on two WS projects — the headliner was the reworked design for the Petco store proposed to take over the Charlestown Cafe site — board members still have major concerns and are basically sending the new architects back to the drawing board for a third “Early Design Guidance” meeting (some projects only need one). Detailed report to come.
Missing woman found
Seattle Police just told us the WS woman reported missing (previous post) has now been found, and officers are going to talk to her to find out what happened. This all unfolded in the Westwood area. At least, that’s where police say the victim lives; this update quotes family members as saying the victim was found in Cle Elum. We have asked Seattle Police to let us know if it turns out later there is a suspect we all need to be watching for.
Diving death near Seacrest
So said channel 7 tv news, briefly. Rescue apparently happening now. We’ll see what else we can find out. 12:35 PM UPDATE: channel 5 says the diver has died. 12:59 PM UPDATE: Here’s an update from the P-I. 1:50 PM UPDATE: Medical Examiner and Police vehicles still at Seacrest when we went by. Also, a short article from the Times.
At the computer briefly between Blue Angels and the rest of Saturday afternoon fun — we want to make sure everyone saw 
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