Thanks to reader Peter for the picture
Seattle Fire’s E Pine Station 25 has had an interesting start to its week on Capitol Hill.
Monday’s wind and rain storm knocked out power to thousands and left Seattle Fire scrambling all day to respond to building alarms triggered by the outage.
Tuesday brought literal dumpster fires to the neighborhood. The mess on Bellevue Ave was a trash fire at a whole other level.
SFD was called to Bellevue and Pike just before 1 PM where a recycling truck from Recology dumped its smoldering load. Firefighters were able to snuff out the burning garbage and the trash truck avoided damage in the incident.
There were no reported injuries and the trash was eventually hauled away.
It’s not clear what caused the incident. “Improperly discarded smoking material” is a frequent cause for trash fires on Capitol Hill.
UPDATE: A CHS reader who happened on the scene reports a worker said the fire was caused by a lithium-ion laptop battery. CHS reported here on the city’s ban on throwing batteries in the trash due to fire risk and environmental concerns. In January, SFD Chief Harold Scoggins said the department had responded to “79 lithium-ion battery fires, often involving e-scooters, e-bikes and portable electronics” over the previous two years — about 3 incidents a month.
Here is the city’s info on properly disposing of batteries:
How to properly dispose of batteries and electronics
Battery Disposal Options:
- Free drop off: SPU North or South Transfer Stations, Household Hazardous Waste Management facilities, or partner retail locations listed on Call2Recycle.org or E-cycle WA
- If a battery is damaged or defective, drop off at a Household Hazardous Waste Management Facility (free of charge)
- At home: request a Special Item Pickup ($5 charge)
Electronics Disposal Options:
- Free drop off: SPU North Transfer Station or E-cycle WA locations
- At home: request a Special Item Pickup ($20 for Special Items box, $30 for TVs larger than 2 ft.)
Special items pickups are free for Utility Discount Program customers.
In another Tuesday dumpster fire, Seattle Fire was also investigating what caused the blaze behind a building in the alley near 13th and Howell.
The just after 1:30 PM fire brought a large response due to its exposure to a nearby structure.
Seattle Fire was able to knock the fire down before it spread. There were no reported injuries.
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There was a dumpster fire in the alley south of Denny between 12th and 13th, about 1:35pm. It was on the verge of spreading to the apartment building when SFD pulled up.
The outdoor man on that block who loves to collect trash could have had a field day helping them cleanup.
Again, they need to offer more places to drop off batteries for folks that are bus bound and don’t have a car. Ridiculous.
Agreed. Hard to believe that the city can’t put a collection station (literally just a box) in the lobby of some government building downtown. Or how about the city leasing an empty storefront in the Pike/Pine corridor and have a combination battery/e-waste drop-off location?
Can’t help but notice that the recommendations to responsibly dispose of a battery are not renter friendly. Renters can’t arrange for special pickups, and many buildings on the surrounding blocks don’t have parking, especially older/cheaper buildings….and taking a bus to hazardous waste facilities and back is an hour + from Capitol Hill.
Your apartment manager should be able to do the scheduling… It’s only $5 a pickup for batteries, it seems like negotiating with your super to put a collection box, that they can have picked up when full, in your garbage area should be a doable thing..