Fire in Fauntleroy Park, ‘not a campfire’
(WSB photo)
Thanks for the tips about a Seattle Fire response on the Arbor Heights side of Fauntleroy Park this morning. Tom Trulin sent the photo below, taken by Karen, showing firefighters at the scene in the park:
We asked SFD about the park fire; spokesperson Kristin Hanson says, “This was a brush fire that encompassed an area of approximately 10 ft x 10 ft. The cause was undetermined.” Meantime, Lynne emailed us to say she was the person who discovered and reported the fire:
I stumbled upon a small fire in Fauntleroy Woods at 8:20 this morning while walking my dog. I was worried about approaching it, fearing an aggressive person, but I couldn’t leave it to burn. After calling out several times, I realized no one was nearby. It was burning just off a less used trail at the base of a big pine tree. A fern and brush were in flames. I tried putting it out with the only thing I had, dirt filled with pine needles, which worked as well as you’d think, snuffled with flames popping up again. I got most of the flames out by stomping on it and pulling branches away, but flames kept appearing and there were too many sparks that would easily reignite. I had already called 911 and struggled through giving them a location. Address unknown and deep in the park, it was hard to figure out what to tell them. I ran up the hill as I heard sirens approaching and ran into my friend as I watched the fire truck go down the wrong road. He chased them down and fortunately we got them to the right location. They put out the obvious fire and sparks and came back up for more water while a second truck showed up. They were still there when I left. Neighbors came and told me this is the 2nd or 3rd fire recently in the woods at the base of big trees. There was talk of possibly an arsonist. This fire was not a campfire. There was no reason for a fire being there or natural causes. Definitely looked human induced for no reason. Makes me nervous about our beloved woods.
SFD did not send its investigator but Hanson is checking whether they’ve been tracking any trends in the area. Fauntleroy Park has multiple potential addresses, so it’s hard to search a log for previous calls, but we did get email on August 19th from an area resident who discovered evidence of a then-recent small fire that “looked like a box was burned, on a main trail.”
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