Man arrested after massive flames seen coming from Seattle encampment

A 46-year-old man has been arrested for reckless burning after massive flames were seen coming from a Seattle encampment on Monday.

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.

Around 6:00 p.m., Seattle Fire said crews extinguished the fire. 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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