SEATTLE — A 64-year-old man, 66-year-old woman and their dog were found dead when crews put out an apartment fire in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
At 11:39 p.m. on Thursday, the Seattle Fire Department’s Fire Alarm Center received 911 calls about flames coming through the window of a third-floor apartment in a building at 23rd Avenue and Madison Street.
The building is the Elizabeth James House, described as a complex for elderly or disabled people.
“Ahh man, that’s really sad. I didn’t even know,” said Payton Robinson, who lives nearby.
When crews arrived, they saw the fire had burned through the third-floor window and was extending upward toward the eaves of the roof.
“I came outside on my way to work and there was this giant freaking cloud of smoke. I couldn’t see anything,” said Robinson.
Crews worked to quickly get water on the fire from outside the building while other firefighters used ladders to check the building’s roof for flames.
“I saw a bunch of ambulances coming over here like, probably almost all around this block. There was like two ambulances, and two fire trucks, just all around the block, a bunch of police cars,” said Robinson.
As firefighters carried a hose line up the stairs to the unit, some smoke billowed from behind the unit’s closed door and into the hallway, but protective fire doors kept much of it contained to the area near the fire.
“I saw the commotion there was a bunch of people outside also, trying to get away from the fire,” said Robinson.
When firefighters entered the apartment, they found furniture and other items blocking access to rooms, forcing them to move the items into the hallway so they could search for occupants and reach the flames, Seattle Fire spokesman David Cuerpo said.
Once firefighters were able to get inside, they found the man, woman and their dog in the living room, according to Cuerpo. All had died.
The fire was put out by 12:13 a.m.
The flames were contained to one apartment, but others below the unit were damaged by water.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Seattle police and the King County Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death for the two people.