An early morning fire sent flames through a home near Seattle’s Matthews Beach and injured a 57-year-old man and eight firefighters Thursday morning.
Eight Seattle firefighters hurt while fighting a house fire Thursday morning are back on the job, while their colleagues plead with city leaders to avoid potential cuts to the department's budget.
The firefighters suffered minor injuries after an awning fell on them on Sand Point Way NE near Matthews Beach, and a 57-year-old man inside the home remained at Harborview Medical Center in stable condition as of Thursday afternoon.
Officials confirmed the blaze first sparked outside, but investigators are still looking into what exactly caused it. A man living across the street who reported the fire before 3 a.m. told KOMO News this was a tragedy for the neighborhood.
During the fire, a deck with an awning collapsed. All firefighters were accounted for, but eight suffered minor injuries, according the Seattle Fire Department. (Photo courtesy John Odegard)"This is something that’s not in the norm for us. It’s scary, and it really shows how dangerous the job of a firefighter can be," SFD spokesperson Kaila Lafferty explained, adding the firefighters were following protocol and were connecting a hose line to a hydrant when an awning or carport collapsed on top of them.
"It was kind of one of those freak accidents," Lafferty said. "We can plan, and we can train for all these different incidents, but there’s just that one factor that comes into play that wasn’t planned for."
They all reported minor injuries, and three were taken to Harborview Medical Center as a precaution. Neighbors were glad to learn they were released quickly and returned to work.
"Our firefighters are sure heroes, I’ll say that much," neighbor Ron Davis stated.
A group from SFD acknowledged the fire when they testified to the city's budget committee later Thursday morning.
Lt. Ryan Ellis, a paramedic officer at Thursday's building collapse and who worked triage at the Bite of Seattle shooting, urged council members to reconsider the budget to keep current staff levels to respond to these types of fires. Mayor Katie Wilson's current proposal would cut $7.1 million from SFD's overtime costs per year, about 2% of the department's total budget.
"This proposed budget reduction would cut fire engines, fire trucks and medic units, increasing the risk of delayed response," Ellis explained.
"We understand the city is facing a budget deficit," SFD Lt. Kenny Stuart added during public comment. "Public safety is the city’s highest priority, but if this budget takes effect, people will wait longer for help when they call 911."
Neighbors shocked by the devastation on Sand Point Way have their thoughts about the budget.
"I hope we have fewer fires in the future and that the firefighters continue to be well-funded and are able to respond to these things quickly and efficiently," neighbor Chris Meierding said.
SFD, Seattle police and the CARE team will present their proposed budgets to the City Council on Friday. In a presentation posted online, SFD wrote the reductions would require the department to manage staffing within available resources and implement planned unit outages.
In a press release, SFD Chief Harold Scoggins wrote he supports the mayor's budget to cut the overtime, and to add hundreds of thousands of dollars back to the department for utilities and maintenance.
"We recognize the consequence of this proposed budget for our daily operations and our membership. We will use call volume data, response time trends and neighboring fire station coverage to schedule outages that minimize the impact as much as possible to our neighborhoods and communities.," Scoggins wrote. "After years of unsustainable one-time fixes that did not address the deficit in future years, the Mayor’s first budget begins the important, necessary work of stabilizing Seattle’s budget so that we can continue to provide essential services to the people of this city."
