SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Big surprise — I-5 brush fire likely started by homeless encampment

Jul 27, 2018, 7:00 PM

brush fire, fire encampment...

(Andrew Smith, Flickr)

(Andrew Smith, Flickr)

Last night, there was a huge brush fire on northbound I-5 in Northgate that jumped the freeway — 10 lanes of traffic — and started another fire on the other side. They suspect the fire began in a homeless encampment.

Locals said that the people in the homeless encampment are cooking all the time. Police found cooking materials in the camp.

There is a burn ban right now in King County. But drug-addicted vagrants can steal a propane tank, bring it back to their encampment, improvise a barbecue, and cost taxpayers a fortune by starting a brush fire.

RELATED: Wildfire season off to a bad start in Washington

Jay Inslee wants to tax our families hundreds of dollars a year because of carbon emissions. How many carbon emissions are spewed into the atmosphere by every brush fire started by a homeless encampment? But we don’t enforce anything at all, at least not on homeless encampments.

I have a question for our politicians, especially for Jay Inslee, who is trotting all around the country getting his name out there so he can run for president in two years. When are you going to start addressing the consequences of the homelessness crisis in your own state? I’ve never heard him talk about the homelessness issue, even though it is certainly a statewide problem.

Think about the number of areas where taxpaying citizens have laws enforced against them, yet drug-addicted vagrants do not.

There are places where people get jaywalking tickets downtown Seattle, yet you can protest the youth jail by lying down in the middle of the street, gridlock the region for hours, yet the police will do nothing about it.

If you park for more than 72 hours in front of your house, your vehicle can be towed. If you are a drug-cooking RV, you can be left alone for weeks or months.

One set of laws for the taxpaying citizens, one set of laws for the drug-addicted vagrants.

RELATED: Seattle is filled with crime, but bus passes are free

If you’re out drinking in Belltown on a Friday night and relieve yourself in an alley, you can be ticketed for public urination. But the drug RVs can drop waste right out of their vehicles right onto a parking strip. In all of the encampments, there is all kinds of public urination and defecation. There’s no enforcement.

If you’re caught with cocaine, you’ll go to prison. If you’re a drug-addicted vagrant, you can shoot up heroin between your toes on a downtown bus bench in front of a cop, and no one will do anything to you.

The word is out, all around the United States — the Puget Sound area is the most drug-friendly region in the country. And that’s why we have the level of problems that we have around here; we’ve attracted the worst of the worst from around the country. Yet you don’t hear the governor or any other public official say anything about that — they just keep going after the taxpaying citizens.

Sound Transit budget deficit delays...

PAOLA TRISTAN ARRUDA, KIRO 7 NEWS

Upcoming light rail maintenance may impact commute on Sound Transit

Sound Transit riders should plan ahead this month as several maintenance projects will alter Link light rail service.

24 minutes ago

...

Jake Skorheim and Spike O'Neill Show

‘Give them the school back’: Jake challenges UW to back up its land acknowledgments after $600K payout

The University of Washington agreed to pay $600K to settle a lawsuit after a ruling found that UW administrators violated a professors First Amendment rights.

50 minutes ago

yelm missing civil war man...

MyNorthwest Staff

Missing person alert issued for man last seen wearing Civil War reenactment uniform in Yelm

A missing person alert has been issued for a man last seen wearing a Civil War reenactment uniform in Yelm.

1 hour ago

A hand holds a single one hundred US dollar bill over a grey asphalt surface. (Photo: Lazy_Bear via...

Jake Skorheim and Spike O'Neill Show

‘I felt like such a schmuck’: Spike recalls finding $4.3K in a briefcase as Albany PD hunts a man over $30

Albany police posted a surveillance photo on Facebook asking the public to help identify a man who picked up $30 off the floor of a local Walmart and kept it.

2 hours ago

renton shooting bar grill...

Lexi Herda, KIRO 7 News

One person rushed to hospital after shooting at Doofers Bar and Grill in Renton

A man was rushed to the hospital after someone shot him at Doofers Bar and Grill in Renton.

3 hours ago

tumwater athlete girls sports...

John Curley Show

‘There was a man in my locker room’: Tumwater athlete vows to keep fighting for girls sports

Tumwater High School senior Frances Staudt sat out her final sophomore basketball game in 2024 rather than compete against a team with a transgender player.

3 hours ago

Dori: Big surprise — I-5 brush fire likely started by homeless encampment