Picture shared with CHS from a witness to one 15th Ave response
Seattle Fire responded to a series of fires set across Capitol Hill overnight.
According to emergency radio updates, crews handled multiple fires set to dumpsters and recycling receptacles including a large fire that broke out near a building in the 1600 block of 15th Ave early Tuesday morning. SFD also responded to another significant 15th Ave dumpster fire and smaller trash fires including one reported near 12th and Pine.
Seattle Police units were called to the area around 12:45 AM for a man seen lighting fires in the area on the icy night, the sixth consecutive with below freezing temperatures.
Seattle Fire units were told to be “on the lookout” for the arsonist in SFD radio dispatch updates.
There were no reported injuries and the fires were knocked down before doing significant damage to any buildings. There were no reported arrests.
SPD is investigating.
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It’s been really cold. I’m not surprised there are people feeling desperate for warmth.
By setting dumpsters on fire, repeatedly?
Occam’s razor says this an arsonist, not someone building a fire for warmth.
Why would a recreational arsonist choose one of the coldest nights of the year to go out and cause trouble? That’s a summertime sport.
I think that if you’re freezing to death, and you decide to set a dumpster on fire, the few minutes of relief you get before the sound of approaching sirens chases you away might motivate you to try it again rather than continue freezing to death. The night is long, and the city is full of dumpsters…
That is an unbelievably sympathetic assessment of dangerous criminal activity. The person who set these fires is an asocial arsonist who cares little for the well being of residents and property owners. I have zero sympathy for them, whether they are homeless, cold, or otherwise disturbed.
Thanks for enabling and rationalizing arson crimes, Mars.
Commenting on a blog is “enabling crimes”? Pshaw. What a wizard I must be, that the mere waggling of my fingertips has such an influence on other people’s behavior.
Of course I am trying to understand the mindset of the person who did this; how else would it be possible to come up with any real solutions for the problem? Demonizing them doesn’t fix anything and punishing them without understanding the behavior will just move the problem somewhere else.
Why is the person setting these fires so careless of other people and their property? I observe that people tend to become more self-centered when they are in pain, and people tend to care less about the rules and expectations of society when they feel that society has no place for them. Thus it seems most likely to me that the arsonist was someone who felt desperate.
If we want to have fewer people setting dumpsters on fire in the winter, perhaps our society should find a way to have fewer people living on the streets freezing to death, so that they will have *reason* to care about our safety and property.
That’s not excuse for setting other people’s property on fire
Yeah there are places to go besides setting the neighborhood on fire.
are there no workhouses
Is there? “Setting neighborhood on fire” geeze hyperbole much?
Indeed
Right. And that’s why “someone trying to keep warm burned down one of the city’s best galleries when there was a warming center two blocks away. Yup. Uh-huh.
I live in the apartment on 14th in which the dumpster fire quickly spread to a nearby tree. 40 foot flames with the heat breaking an apartment window. Fire dept arrived just in time before the building caught on fire. Pretty terrifying night. With the multiple occurrences in the surrounding area, and with the thoughtless way they were started, pretty sure they weren’t for warmth.
There was another one just before midnight at E Mercer between 14th/Malden
Is this related to the power outage last night?
Nope. Not even close.
Yeaaa, this happened outside my building on 14th & Mercer. Dumpster, fence, and a cedar tree fully engulfed at midnight. I was awakened by the crackling of the cedar as it burned. Super scary and clearly this wasn’t a “keep warm” scenario given they were set all over the neighborhood.