Thanks to reader Micah for this picture of the fire
An overnight fire charred a vacant Capitol Hill apartment building lined up to be demolished to make way for a new housing project for “chronically homeless adults.”
Seattle Fire reported the 4:20 AM blaze as a two-alarm fire as flames leapt from the emptied Granberg Apartments onto a neighboring structure in the 1700 block of Belmont.
The fire raged through the three-story, 1908-era apartment building quickly and, with the roof at risk of collapse, SFD said it was taking a defensive position “by pouring water on the fire at a safe distance away from the building.”
More than an hour later, crews were still working to completely put out the fire as SFD warned residents and businesses in the area to close windows and doors to try to prevent smoke from entering.
The Granberg was recently part of a $6.5 million property deal that put the former transitional housing building and two neighboring Pioneer Human Services buildings in the hands of Downtown Emergency Service Center where the organization says it plans to build “a new Permanent Supportive Housing project” on the parcels.
It was not immediately clear how the fire started. The Seattle Fire Marshal was called to investigate and determine a cause.
There were no reported injuries.
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In a remarkable instance of foreshadowing, it was already housing chronically homeless adults.
The city needs to be a bit speedier to tear these down.
Your 100 percent right about that . It should be mandatory since SFD does not put fires out! They only contain them?..
A 10,000 sq ft lot at that location?
What could be done there instead of limiting it to ‘a new housing project for “chronically homeless adults.”’ I don’t know the location or its history (I live out in Staten Island or D5) but this city’s lack of imagination or courage in the face of these opportunities continues to puzzle me. How many floors are permitted? Could the OG facade be incorporated into a new taller structure?
The other lower income buildings constantly have fire departments and EMTs coming multiple times a day. These new buildings Text will only strain our services and increase them coming down Belmont even more than they already do. Neighbors are sick of it but please keep building.
How will they “strain our services” any more than they already are? Do you think people living on the street aren’t already needing EMS responses, but somehow if they’re housed they will? This very story you’re commenting on shows the exact opposite of that
I live on that block, i’m not sick of the fire and emts coming, because if someone is in crisis then i’d rather them come.
and if your next reply is these people shouldn’t be there in the first place, then you’re part of the problem. these people need to live somewhere, and if people like you keep saying they don’t belong on this block or that block then where should they go?
If only we had more non-profits with unlimited tax dollars bringing our new neighbors from Texas and Florida experiencing drug induced psychosis harm reduction supplies and camping equipment and paying their bail and fighting to abolish the police and the criminal justice system, this tragedy could have been prevented. It is going to be great once we give the same individuals that burned down the place free view apartments in Capitol Hill with no rules. Thank god we have progressive leadership in this city that apply evidence-based solutions that reduce stigma.
When did this turn into NextDoor?
Is the “progressive leadership in this city” in the room with you right now
No, but the failed progressive leadership policies are in the park and front of the library right now.. I don’t want public camping in community green. I don’t want unmanaged transitional housing disrupting hundreds of neighbors with SPS/SFD weekly, daily, fighting and assaults, creaming and dealing..
The way yall whine about derelict buildings naturally becoming flops and have no words for the title holders who let them stand derelict, yall are never solving a thing to your own satisfaction ever.
My thoughts exactly. They put up signs saying there were security cameras except they either don’t exist or aren’t monitored. If they had cared about their property and wanted to protect the neighbors from something like fire happening they would be more proactive than that. It was clear walking past the buildings people were still getting in, too. Shockingly, particle board isn’t hard to get past.