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.

FILE - A Walmart sign stands outside a store, Sept. 3, 2019, in Walpole, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Sen...

Associated Press

Walmart says it’s not using personal information to set prices as it expands digital shelf labels

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is aiming to assuage customers’ fears about its new pricing technology as it rolls out digital price labels at its stores. In a statement posted on the company’s website, Walmart Inc.’s CEO John Furner vowed that the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer isn’t using personal information like income, shopping history or a […]

1 hour ago

Associated Press

Hurricane Nolo gains speed as it moves away from Hawaii, but high winds, flash floods are still risk

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Hurricane Nolo was moving away from the Hawaiian Islands on Sunday, but the threat of heavy rains, flash flooding and strong winds persisted in areas recovering from previous storms. By early Sunday, Nolo was about 260 miles (418 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii’s southernmost point and was moving away from the Big […]

3 hours ago

A Coast Guardsman tosses a rope to a kayaker in distress after the kayaker's boat overturned north ...

Tom Brock

San Juan Islands Rescue: Coast Guard crews save man after his kayak overturns

A Coast Guard helicopter and rescue boat saved a man from the chilly waters of the Salish Sea Friday, after his kayak capsized near Orcas Island.

3 hours ago

Associated Press

Three people were killed and four were injured in shooting at Detroit strip club, police say

DETROIT (AP) — Three people were killed and four more were injured when an argument led to gunfire at an after-hours strip club Sunday morning in Detroit, officials said. Police responding to the 7:21 a.m. shooting on a largely residential street found three men who had been fatally shot, Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison told […]

4 hours ago

Boeing (2)...

Tom Brock

Software glitch raises safety concerns for Boeing 737 MAX planes

Boeing has notified its customers of a computer glitch on its 737 MAX planes that could force pilots to land manually, instead of using autopilot.

5 hours ago

Iraq's Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Ass...

Associated Press

UN speakers’ go-to quotes: Ancient texts, modern greats and a little Talking Heads

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Presidents, premiers, monarchs and cabinet ministers have plenty to say at their annual gathering at the U.N. General Assembly. Still, sometimes they borrow a few words, quoting from a range of sources. Speakers this week touched on homeland sayings, ancient texts, figures of moral authority and more — even a bit […]

6 hours ago

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