SEATTLE – A fire that killed one resident at a north Seattle retirement home was accidental, fire officials said.
The fire at the Four Freedoms retirement home started Sunday on a stove in the 310-unit, seven-story building, Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said.
Damage was estimated at $800,000.
Eight other residents had to be taken to the hospital Sunday. Most were suffering from shortness of breath, Fitzpatrick said.
Residents of the sixth and seventh floors were not allowed to return to their homes due to fire damage, and the Red Cross was called in to help approximately 80 people find alternative shelter.
Those living on the first through fifth floors were able to stay in their apartments unless there was excessive water damage.
Man pleads innocent to murder charges
A man charged with murdering the family of a soldier serving in Iraq pleaded not guilty Monday in King County Superior Court.
Conner Michael Schierman, 24, remains jailed on $10 million bail for four counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson. Prosecutors say he killed the family of National Guard Sgt. Leonid Milkin – his wife, Olga Milkin, 28; their sons, Justin, 5, and Andrew, 3; and Olga’s sister, Lyubov Botvina, 24 – on July 17.
Schierman admitted to waking up in their home covered in blood after an alcoholic blackout and using gasoline to burn down the home in an effort to conceal the crime, charging papers said.
Chehalis: Language a problem at hearing
Lewis County is having trouble prosecuting a vehicular homicide suspect from Guatemala, partly because he speaks only a Mayan dialect called Mam.
Two translators were needed for Friday’s competency hearing – one to translate from Mam to Spanish and the other to translate from Spanish to English.
Rene Ramirez-Perez, 20, faces two counts of vehicular homicide for a crash in December that killed two people, including his brother.
Ramirez-Perez was evaluated at Western State Hospital, which found he did not understand what was happening to him.
Wapato: Man thought drowned in pond
A man apparently drowned in a popular swimming hole on private land in the lower Yakima Valley, Yakima County sheriff’s deputies said.
The pond southwest of Wapato was only about 12 feet to 15 feet deep where the 25-year-old man was last seen late Sunday afternoon, but a diver was unable to find him because the water was so murky, sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Udell said
The man, described as a poor swimmer, was with five friends and told them he was going to swim to a small island about 100 yards from shore, but he slipped beneath the surface after getting only halfway there, deputies were told.
The man’s friends said they tried to find him for about an hour before calling for help.
Alaska: Salvage team member dies in fall
A member of a salvage team studying how to stabilize a listing ship in the Aleutian Islands died when he lost his footing, slid down the ship’s deck and hit his head, the Coast Guard said Monday.
The four-member salvage team was getting ready to leave the Cougar Ace on Sunday when the naval architect slipped and was knocked unconscious. Efforts to revive him aboard the ship failed. He was flown to a nearby Coast Guard cutter with a surgeon and a clinic, Coast Guard spokeswoman Sara Francis said. However, he was declared dead about an hour later.
The naval architect was from Seattle. His name was being withheld until relatives could be notified.
Associated Press
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