A man was apparently injured by an explosion and police confiscated loads of fireworks from his apartment after loud booms ripped through the Capitol Hill night, shaking apartments, houses — and cops — across several neighborhoods late Monday night.
According to police, a man was found carrying a lighter and bleeding near the 1700 block of Summit Ave after the second explosion around 12:10a Tuesday. An officer who heard the boom and arrived in time to find smoke still swirling confronted the man and asked him about his injuries. The man pulled up his shirt to reveal a “hole” in his abdomen. Police say he also had abrasions on his thighs and head. A witness told police they had seen the man standing over a firework in the area before it exploded.
911 — and the CHS Twitter feed — was inundated with calls about the first explosion around 11:48p Monday night. Witnesses said they heard the loud boom somewhere near Summit Ave area.
After the second explosion, police arrived to find several people in the street — some angry at what has become a relatively regular event in the neighborhood. CHS made note of some particularly loud activity around Independence Day.
When they found the man bleeding from what is described in the report as a “deep hole” in his stomach, he man said he didn’t know what happened. Police asked a woman who was with the man if they could check their apartment for possible additional victims. Inside, they found what was described by SPD as a large amount of fireworks.
According to police, the man was treated at the scene by Seattle Fire but was not arrested. We don’t yet have details if his injuries were serious enough to require hospitalization. But we can tell you that you likely won’t hear more explosions around Summit Ave tonight. The SPD arson and bomb squad confiscated the cache of recreational explosives for evidence.
My building is right next to where it happened and it had me jolting out of bed and shaken. Anyone else had trouble getting back to sleep afterwards? Thank goodness they confiscated those fireworks. It was getting obnoxious and frightening.
I’m glad no one was hurt, but it was getting ridiculous. I have enough trouble sleeping without some asshat deciding he wants to set off a few fireworks on a monday night.
Err I meant Killed, not hurt….
Good.
I recently moved off the hill and these nightly fireworks (among other things) were a driving force. I bet this is the dickwad that has been setting them off late at night for MONTHS. Just randomly, 11pm, midnight, 2am, BOOM! It was driving me crazy and seriously disrupting my sleep. Hole in his stomach serves him right. Freaking moron.
does everything bad happen on the 1700 block on Summit?? I felt safe walking in NYC in the middle of the night but not on Summit between Olive St & Howell in the bright of day. One would think due to the demographics of that particular block that there would be steady patrols by SPD.
I’m newish to the area, I didn’t know that was considered a dangerous area.
I get coffee at Analog sometimes. Haven’t seen anything suspicious happen yet.
Yes. That block is the worst. Weirdly enough, it’s pretty contained to JUST that block. (Unless it’s an asshat setting off M80s, then everyone gets to suffer!)
Believe it or not, this block is much quieter than it was 20 years ago. You think it’s bad now, well, let’s just say that the murder rate has dropped quite a bit.
Glad that this person was caught before he killed someone. He certainly earned his injuries.
I’m on Boylston and E. Olive, and holy shit that was a loud couple of explosions last night – I really want to know what the hell he lit off, I don’t think that was even standard boom city fare…
That said, I don’t think he’s the only dick with a calendar stuck on 7/4. I’ve definitely seen some light shows slightly more in the Denny/Harvard direction. Honestly I (personally) don’t mind it on/around the 4th – but more than a month later? Not cool.
Analog is on the other side of Denny, behind the Gaybucks. That area isn’t bad. The bad area is over by Howell; where all the halfway houses and shit are. It’s super fucking sketchy on Summit/Belmont for those 2 blocks. Summit is def worse than Belmont.
I was wondering what the heck that was. I actually found this website while searching. Thanks for reporting!
Hello fellow neighbors and good citizens,
Unexpected booms, without warning are not cool especially for some veterans. Fireworks or loud demolitions should be anounced on public media news outlets to inform citizens so, that we can leave the area while they are going off.
Thank you,
Very Respectfully,
Tim
Why is nobody saying this is all part of living in a diverse urban setting and if you don’t like it move to Bellevue?
This is usually the standard answer made by most of the idiots who can afford to still live on Capitol Hill.
I couldn’t sleep for hours… I am so relieved to see this on the blog and know this has come to a stop!
Analog is several blocks north of the ‘bad’ side of Summit. Generally speaking, where things get is Summit north of Olive/Denny. B
Enough with the move to Bellevue elitist attitude bro. I don’t think anyone should have to deal with loud explosions at night no matter what neighborhood you live in. I especially agree with the person who commented on veterans. Random explosions at night can trigger nightmare scenarios for veterans trying to get their life back to normal after the horrors of war. Show some respect.
Correction – SOUTH of Denny/Olive.
I learned this a couple of years ago when we took our (recently-arrived-back-home-from-Iraq) friend to NYE at the Space Needle. He was very uncomfortable and didn’t know not to go since it was his fireworks since his tour had ended.
Without having been near actual bombings, I can say that caught off-guard fireworks sometimes have me thinking gunshot and the Blue Angels terrify the hell out of me when I’m downtown.
DaveD,
Sarcasm escapes you Bro!
my bad dpt2. I didn’t sense the sarcasm. I was hiding under the sheets.
A lot of people think these halfway houses on Summit and Belmont make this area a bad neighborhood. There are a lot of halfway houses dotting Summit and Belmont, but they don’t make the neighborhood bad. Most of these are managed by Pioneer Human Services. And, a lot of these transitional homes have pretty strict rules with little tolerance for residents who continue to offend.
There are a lot of good people who live in the area, halfway house residents and non-halfway house residents. Those who do live in the HHs are trying to get their lives on track and deserve a place to live. If they weren’t there, they could be on the streets, and that’s no good for anyone. With that said, I’m sure those HH residents don’t fall into what most consider society’s cream of the crop. So, some idiot’s bound to act the fool, but that happens everywhere. AND, it should be noted that last night’s incident did not take place at one of the Pioneer Housing transitional homes.
Don’t know what the specific rules are for the building where last night’s incident took place, but I’m sure they’re dealing with that dude. Plus, he’s got a hole in his stomach. He’s a dumbass and shit sucks for him right now. Comeuppance achieved.
I’m glad it happened just before I went to sleep because I likely would have had a night of insomnia otherwise.
I could hear people cheering after the first one went off so I figured it was one of the motorcyclists showing off his new rig or something.
I’m glad this firework guy was caught, but the monster motorcycle engines cause me more headaches. And I’m a fan of a nice bike, I just feel some people could use some injections of respect for their neighbors.
So true. Aside from my own discomfort at these loud booms, my main concern was for any veterans in the area. If I, someone who has never seen warfare, was disturbed by these random explosions, I can only imagine the kind of anxiety it was giving veterans.
I live on the 1600 block of Summit and there have been regular patrols by SPD starting a few months ago after some robberies and shootings in the area. So yeah, SPD is starting to pay attention to this block now.
I heard two explosions – the one at midnight, and a much louder one an hour or hour-and-a-half earlier. That was a BOOM, not a bang or a pop or a crack – didn’t sound like backfire, or firecrackers, or a gun. I thought someone’s car engine had blown up, or something. Thank God that stash didn’t start a fire.
There’s some halfway house on that block with about 15 sex offenders.
It’s illegal to set off fireworks in the city of Seattle at any time, including July 4th. I can understand the impracticality of enforcing this law around the holiday, but it surely could be enforced at other times, especially in cases like this where there is a clear perpetrator.
I hope he is prosecuted fully and that this will serve as a warning to other selfish jerks who disturb the peace with this juvenile activity.
And that’s why we can’t have nice things.
Couldn’t agree more. Prosecute him.
@steve
these halfway houses on summit and belmont DO make this area a bad neighborhood. there is rampant drug use and prostitution going on in these house. pioneer human services (phs) has a daytime presence at these houses and nothing more. nights and weekends it’s a free-for-all.
yes, some idiots act the fool no matter where you are. but when you concentrate those kinds of fools in a one block radius in 4-5 houses, then you have a higher likelihood of having that foolishness happen on a regular basis.
i’ve commented on this blog before about phs and the halfway houses. i’m willing to have them in my neighborhood but phs need to step us their presence, have mandatory weekly drug testing and provide a nighttime security force. otherwise i’ll get a petition started to have the city start looking at phs’s practices and the effect that these houses have on this hyper-localized community.
this specific block needs to be cleaned up.
@calhoun
unfortunately even this guy’s injury isn’t a deterrent. i live at summit and howell; last night this area was again “under siege” with morons out setting of more fireworks.
if someone nearly blowing them self up can’t stop people from setting off fireworks on a random tuesday then the fear of prosecution certainly won’t.
Well said. I’ve been living a block away for 10 years and walk down that street about every other day. Never heard of any of the residents causing problems, aside from the occasional dispute between neighbors in one of the houses.
My theory is that the problems in that area are mostly caused by the scumbags who come to visit the down-on-their-luck people living in the crappy apartments between the halfway houses. Maybe if the property owners would have someone sweep up all the butts on the sidewalk and take care of their property a little better there’d be fewer problems?
I live on 1st Ave. and for at least a couple of months we have been hearing loud booms. I am suspecting it was this dumbass. I am glad it will be coming to an end, and hopefully he has learned his lesson.
@zeebleoop
I would sign that petition in a heartbeat, and I know a lot of other residents on this block who would as well. It’s worth looking into PHS’s standards for who can live in their buildings. I’d like to know if I’m living next to people who are violent and insane, or merely drug-addicted. These are people who have demonstrated, repeatedly I’d assume, that they’re not responsible enough to handle their shit in a way that isn’t destructive to the larger community. I thought the point of concentrating them in one area is to make supervision easier.
In the meantime, not that it will amount to much, here’s the page for PHS’s Summit Ave. facility on Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/pioneer-human-services-hudson-house- I think our experiences are worth sharing with the public in some regard.
Before jumping on the bandwagon looking at the Pioneer Human Services housing to blame, take a look at the Curben “Hotel” on Summit between Olive St & Howell. They have a long reputation of renting to individuals that create problems in the neighborhood, and the Dept of Corrections and the City Attorney’s Office had to get them over a legal barrel in the early 2000’s before they finally started to clean up their act.
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