Lynnwood apartment fire that forced more than a dozen out of homes now being investigated as arson

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — An overnight apartment fire that forced people out of their units in Lynnwood is now being investigated as arson.

The fire at the building on 46th Avenue West just above 194th Street Southwest was reported shortly after midnight on Tuesday.

Firefighters said a car in the carport under the Trinity Place Apartments caught fire. The fire then spread to the building, went into the attic and stopped at the stairwell.

Eight units were badly damaged and are uninhabitable.

No one was hurt.

The Fire Marshall and investigators with the Lynnwood Fire Department responded to the scene to investigate.

After interviewing witnesses and reviewing surveillance footage, investigators determined that arson was likely the cause of the fire.

Firefighters said 14 people were displaced, including three children, according to Leslie Hynes with Snohomish County Fire District 1.

The Red Cross is helping those who were displaced.

Misty Malloy is one of the 14 displaced residents. She said she was inside her apartment when the fire broke out.

“I heard a boom and it shook my entire apartment. I got out the door and I could already see the flames coming up and over,” Malloy said. “I grabbed a bag, I had no clothes.”

Malloy spoke to KIRO 7 as she was sitting on the sidewalk by her apartment complex, waiting to see if her cats were still alive. She also was waiting to see if any of her kids’ belongings were salvageable, which she recently arranged into boxes.

“I was trying to get a storage unit and I was trying to get enough money together, so I could move all my stuff,” Malloy said. “I don’t know what I’m going to tell my kids … I could barely get enough money together to get a storage unit, let alone being homeless and not knowing what to do. It sucks.”

The Trinity Place Apartment Complex is part of the YWCA. The organization states the units also include a program “to help reunite families facing homelessness and build housing stability.”

Malloy said her journey to live at the complex was difficult. She worries about getting back on her feet, again.

“It took family drug court and getting my kids back, to losing my kids, to losing the man I was with for seven years. And now, I’ve lost everything,” she said.

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