Thanks to CHS readers for pictures and reports from the scene
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- Williams Place encampment fire: Seattle Police and Seattle Fire were called to the encampment in Williams Place Park Sunday afternoon after an explosion and a fire damaged tents and belongings but caused no reported significant injuries. Officers and firefighters were called to the park at 15th and John just before 2 PM to a report of an explosion and fire burning the public space. Officers arrived to find one tent fully engulfed and a second scorched by the blaze. Police say the tent owner was not present at the time of the incident and witnesses said the fire appeared to be an accident and reported no suspicious activity at the encampment. SPD says it couldn’t be determined what caused the fire and explosion but officers reported numerous flammable items including fuel canisters in the park. “Several encampments were entirely destroyed,” advocacy group Be:Seattle reports. “The people living there lost their shelter and all of their belongings.” You can learn more about how to donate items to help here.
- Sunday night gunfire: Multiple 911 callers reported gunfire late Sunday night around E Olive Way. Reports began coming in just before 11:30 PM of around three to five shots. Some witnesses reported seeing a male and a white sedan leaving the area around Denny and E Olive following the gunfire, according to East Precinct radio updates. Police checked the area but found no victims and reported damage.
- Broadway dog and knife fight: A fight involving a man armed with a switchblade and a man and woman armed with an angry dog — and a surprise cat — brought a huge police presence to Broadway and Harrison in a Friday afternoon incident. Police were called to the corner of Broadway and Harrison just after 2 PM Friday to the reported conflict and found a man armed with a pink switchblade bleeding from his hand and in an argument with the man and woman with the dog. Police say they told the man to drop the knife and he immediately complied and told them he had been bit by the animal. As police were contacting the man and woman with the dog, one of them spit in an officer’s face prompting a rush to the scene by more police to provide backup and leash the barking dog to a utility pole. Police took the man and woman into custody. Animal control was called to the scene to pick up the dog — and a cat found inside a bag belonging to the arrested couple. The man who was bit in the hand declined treatment from Seattle Fire.
There is an SPD incident on Broadway at E Harrison St blocking the northbound lane. Use caution and seek alternate routes. pic.twitter.com/XoeSC9grzS
— SDOT Traffic (@SDOTtraffic) March 12, 2021
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The encampment at the Williams Place park had a fire of similar size just two weeks.
There was also one on 14th last year a block away that caught the telephone pole on fire, one on the porch of Gilda’s club last week, two along I-5 between pine and Denny in the last 3 months, and at least 5 houses on Capitol in the last two year. Somebody died recently in the squatter fire on 21st earlier this year.
The fire hazards along should be grounds for sweeping and clearing most of these encampments.
*alone
Sweep to where? The anti-homeless sentiment in Captiol Hill scares me. You’re free to move.
As are you. Who made you the arbiter of all things Capitol Hill?
I’ve seen and heard generators running at the homeless camps. I imagine the combustible material was a bunch of diesel or other fuel. Next time the fire could be much worse, and sadly, likely nothing will change until someone gets killed or a building burns down
The 400 block of Broadway E has become a dystopian disaster in recent weeks, and now this. There’s the fortress-like homeless camp in front of the QFC, and the squalid camp at the NE corner with Harrison, inhabited by a woman who is in obvious need of mental health and/or drug treatment. Why can’t our city government/public health/community police intervene and help someone like that? (and clean up the camp in the process). Everyone just looks the other way, and the camp continues.
This is on purpose. If we make the city more squalid and dangerous, the rich people will move out and then prices will go down…and life will go back to what it was in the 90s.
Does anyone know anything about the red car that was towed away?