Smoke from large Seattle fire distracts drivers during commute
Oct 8, 2012, 4:52 PM | Updated: Oct 9, 2012, 12:27 pm
Folks traveling across 520 were distracted by large plumes of smoke Monday afternoon.
A Seattle Fire Department spokesman says one home along Lake Washington was destroyed, a second was badly damaged and four other houses suffered varying degrees of damage in a fast-moving fire that sent up a thick black column of smoke.
Spokesman Kyle Moore says a painter working on the house where the fire began Monday afternoon was in stable condition at Harborview Medical Center with burns to the face and hands. A firefighter was taken to the hospital with heat exhaustion.
Moore says the fire originated in a house under construction. Painters working there told firefighters they heard the furnace kick on and then an explosion. Moore says the cause of the blaze is under investigation. No damage amount was immediately available.
Damage to one adjacent house made it uninhabitable. Another house suffered exterior heat damage and three houses on the street above had minor roof fires after embers landed there.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(Above photo courtesy Laura Miller)
(Bottom three photos courtesy KIRO Radio traffic reporter Kimi Kline)
