Comments

1
Good to hear about the utility work coordination.
3
Kudos civil servants!
4
Whew. The top of the picture loaded and looked like my town home, for just a second. Thankfully this was about 6 blocks away.
5
This is what happens when you build cookie cutter communities with the housecondopartments barely 5 feet apart.
6
min. separation with openings is 10' between structures, or 5' from a property line. damage on the adjacent property was only to the siding, and response was 2 minutes, 58 minutes short of the 1-hour rating for walls built on property lines.

this is what fires are supposed to look like.
7
@6 Read it again, there were 3 houses involved.

..the flames jumping to a neighboring home and causing moderate damage before firefighters could get both blazes under control. The siding of a house to the other side suffered external damage from the intense heat, but was otherwise unscathed.
8
So are we looking at the back or the front of those "houses"?
10

Shadow inventory exposed?

11
Oh if only a citizen on the scene had been armed with fire of his own.
12
@9: Density and wood construction just don't go well together. Chicago and New York both figured that out after one big fire; we seem to be slower learners here.
13
@7 (& @12): that's written poorly, but ok, sure, 3 houses. look at the photo. all 3 houses have the required separation. the beige house in the middle is the source. the blue house likely suffered the "moderate" damage. the beige house to the other side suffered the siding damage (and my guess is it's melted vinyl siding). the fire code does not to make the adjacent structures impervious to fire damage, it saves lives by building for escape time - 1 hour construction, 2 hour construction. with the 5' separation from a property line, and 10' between structures, 1 hour construction is not required. how long did the fire burn? >60 min.? all the article notes is the response time. to me, it looks like these (ugly) homes performed as required.

BTW, if these really were attached townhomes, each party wall would have been 1 hour construction, with a 4' horizontal protection for the roof, meaning it could burn for an hour before impacting the adjacent structure's wall.

if density & wood construction don't go together, it will be news to the IBC, DPD & the SFD. get ready to tear down 90% of seattle's multi-family housing.
14
Utility crews are always called to fires to cut the power. Then, the next day, someone like me goes out to the scene to try and find the meter and ask the owners what they would like to do (repair it, tear it down, etc). Sometimes it can be quite emotional.

And let me just murmur quietly that "your tax dollars" have very little to do with it. City Light is required to cover its operating costs, and the utility tax contributes to the general fund.
15
I live on the same block and did not lose power.
16
@14

Let me be the first person in a million years to say "thank you City Light."

Let me be the latest person in a long line of people to point out details and facts are irrelevant for most users of this message board.

Good save for the hard-working folks on engine 28. Had this fire occurred north of the ship canal, the entire west coast might have burned down.

Please wait...

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