VIDEO: A new push is now officially underway to make Seattle neighborhoods safer from vacant building fires.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell signed a new ordinance into effect that gives the Seattle Fire Department (SFD) the authority to order the demolition of unsafe, vacant buildings.
The idea is to remove these dangerous structures, not only to prevent fire but to also protect firefighters from injury or death and to prevent these fires from spreading to neighboring structures. Fires in vacant buildings are not new. Seattle recorded 77 such fires in 2021, 91 in 2022, and 130 in 2023.
Three people died in fires raging through unsafe buildings in 2023, according to city records.
The city of Seattle has already recorded 34 vacant building fires since January 1 and expects more fires in derelict buildings in the coming months.