Seattle Newspaper for the People by the People

Arson Fire in Georgetown

During the night of Jan. 22 and morning of Jan 23 there was a huge apartment house fire at 6710 Corson Ave. This fire was ARSON. It is a three story building and the entire top floor was engulfed in flames. This happened right between wind storms or the house right beside it would be gone too. At least 8 people lost their homes and everything they owned. No one got killed. The tenants were lined up across the street for a few hours with nothing but what they had on their backs when they escaped. Approx 3 hours later a red cross car arrived and handed out blankets. Another couple hours later a red cross van came and took them all away.  A photographer took pictures of that so it was basically a Red Cross photo op.

This apartment house has been a hot bed of trouble. It might be what you call low low income people but I want to expand on that a little. These were housekeeping rooms and I believe there were 2 apartments that had their own bath, so there was a lot of people that had to go down the hall and share a bathtub on the main floor or go to the basement or upstairs to share a shower. Lots of street people or people who would park an old motor home on a side street would come and use the facilities. It was impossible to know how many or who really lived there. The police and fireman came at least once a month for drug busts, or over doses or fights, you name it and it happened over there. This was an accident waiting to happen. Why I wanted to expand on low income it appeared to be non working people who paid HIGH RENT because this was a place where the landlord did not do a background check. He got paid double what the room was worth and if you didn’t like it you couldn’t just move because half didn’t even use their right name. One would rent a room and a few buddies moved in. The place should have been closed down years ago but somehow managed to exist. Fights where yelling was I am going to kill you etc. over and over and over. Until the 23rd.

Fireman, detectives, a tenant that lived there, and the owner of the building all have told me it was ARSON. Right on the start they said it was. I am not sure how they could tell immediately but that seemed to be obvious to them all. There have been several versions which is common to any story. But when I asked one fireman if he thought a firebug was loose and we neighbors were in danger he said he didn’t think so. He said this fire was set to hurt or kill someone on the top floor. It was set in the doorway at the top of the back stairs. A fire bug that wants to watch a fire would usually just torch something at the ground level and make a fast get away. Also, a tenant said just before the fire there was a loud explosion which woke them and they all escaped because of that. Of course the detectives, fireman or police are not going to tell any of us neighbors the details and we know that but none the less this was a BIG BIG STORY. That being the case why was it not on the front page of the Times? Why was it not on every TV channel as a leading Seattle news story? KIRO and KOMO had about a 2 second spot of the red cross handing out blankets. No story about how big the fire was, no story about ARSON.  How can that be. It is scary to think you are actually getting the news when you read the only paper in town or watch the local news. If a story this big and important wasn’t mentioned how many other really important things are they NOT telling us. My point completely is we are only told what officials want us to be told.  That is very scary. I am going to try to find out from the times why they did not even mention it at all. Hope all of you readers do too. I am sure you can check with the fire department to know my story is true. At least 3 blocks of Corson Ave was full of fire trucks, medics, etc. LLL

 

Having lived in Seattle (Georgetown) for over 80 years, Lilly has a passion for the area. A true Seattleite, Lilly has the history & experience to discuss any topic. Being retired, she enjoys visiting with her many grand children, gardening, and writing.

2 Comments

  1. I have lived in GT for 11 years and this is the first time we have had peace and quiet from the 6710 Corson address. Day and night foot and car traffic with people yelling “hey your sh_t is here” from the car window to death threats and obscenities. The morning of the fire I heard the yelling and sirens and thought here we go again, they must have finally acted on the threats. Finally after 15 minutes of the yelling I got up to see what was going on and saw the flames. Normally my rule is don’t make your business mine and I will do the same but they crossed that line to many times. That house cannot return to it’s prefire days.

  2. I live next door to this drug den. Not only this recent fire, but just the weekend before someone died in there, probably an OD since the fire dept. has been called ther numerous times for OD’s. There has been multiple domestic disturbances, a stabbing, drug deals, etc. I personally hope it is deemed unfit to salvage and just gets torn down. A vacant lot would be preferable to the type of people who were occupying there.

Leave a Reply

Latest from Headline News

Go to Top