Man suspected of causing fire at Mercer homeless camp released from jail

SEATTLE — A 46-year-old man suspected of starting a large fire at a homeless encampment off Mercer Street has been released from jail without charges.

On Tuesday, a judge found probable cause for felony reckless burning and the man was initially held on $50,000 bail. Two days later, he was released without the King County Prosecutor’s Office filing charges. Instead, the investigation was sent to the Seattle City Attorney, where he could still face a lesser misdemeanor charge.

According to court documents, the man said he was cleaning his tent when he knocked over a candle that was lit. He said he didn’t notice at first but soon saw his tent was on fire. He said he then tried to extinguish it but it grew too big.

Our traffic cameras captured the fire near Mercer Street and Fairview Avenue North in South Lake Union. The fire was along the I-5 Mercer Street ramp.

“All I saw was black smoke, yellow smoke, green smoke, and then it started popping and stuff started flying,” said a passerby.

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Mercer I-5 fire

Court documents said the encampment is known to house at least a dozen people and is up against an apartment. Also, the side of the apartment building that faces the camp is an exterior gas line.

“The fire would have spread to other tents and apartments if SFD did not get involved and put out the fire,” said documents.

Around 6:00 p.m., Seattle Fire said it was under control. No injuries were reported.

People who live right next to the encampment told us this isn’t the first time the fire department has been called to the area.

“But we smell, my neighbors and I, about every other day some sort of fire,” one woman told us.

But she also said this explosion and other small fires are just part of the problem they see every single day.

“They follow us. We are absolutely terrorized by them,” she said. “We had a homicide in March. So….We are terrorized. I mean, we are freaking out.”

And as people in this neighborhood look at the damage left behind, many believe the city needs to take action so this sort of activity stops.

“Don’t clean up their trash, get them out of here. Get them the actual help that they need so they are not torturing everybody around us,” she said.

Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Office told us the encampment off Mercer Street is a priority multijurisdictional site scheduled to be jointly addressed by the Washington State Department of Transportation and the City of Seattle’s Unified Care Team.

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