SEATTLE – Seattle fire officials spent Sunday investigating a string of seven blazes that damaged a condominium complex, a cafe, two homes, a garage and a car dealership overnight.
At least five of the fires were deliberately set in the Lake City section of North Seattle, the fire department said. Investigators had not had a chance to examine the damage done at other two more serious fires, at a condo complex under construction on Phinney Ridge and at a home in the University District.
The fires came one week after a fire destroyed an apartment building being built in the Wallingford neighborhood, causing $2.75 million in damage.
Mayor Greg Nickels, Fire Chief Gregory Dean and Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske held a news conference to announce that police would be keeping an eye on construction sites throughout the city.
“We’re not going to speculate on who this might be,” Nickels said. “But we will find them and we will bring them to justice.”
The busy night began with a fire at a University District home. Three people were there when the fire started; two jumped 12 feet from the back roof to escape and another climbed out a basement window, but no one was hurt, fire department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said.
The fire spread to the roof of a neighboring house before firefighters doused it.
Less than an hour later, firefighters responded to the fully engulfed condominium complex under construction on Phinney Ridge, near the Woodland Park Zoo. Witnesses reported flames leaping 100 feet into the air from the structure, which took up the better part of a city block.
“There’s no sheetrock, so there’s nothing to stop the fire spread,” Fitzpatrick said. “The fire spread extremely quickly.”
Firefighters evacuated people from nearby homes, some of which had paint blistered by the heat.
The structure remained unstable Sunday and officials were unable to investigate a potential cause or estimate the cost of the damage, which was extensive.
Five deliberately set fires were subsequently reported in the Lake City area. Cafe Long on Lake City Way sustained $200,000 in damage, and damage at a Ford dealership near the cafe was estimated $30,000.
A fire in a garage caused $20,000 in damage, Fitzpatrick said, and debris fires at two construction sites totaled $2,000.
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