A natural gas leak occurred in the neighborhood where an explosion and large fire destroyed a home early Monday, Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean said from the scene.
Firefighters responded to a large fire in north Seattle shortly after 6 a.m. Monday. TV station helicopter footage shows a fully involved structure fire and neighbors reported hearing an explosion more than a mile away.
The fire department evacuated about 25 homes in the neighborhood while workers from Puget Sound Energy were investigating, Dean said. The utility also was shutting off a feeder gas line.
The fire is located in the 12300 block of 5th Ave. N.E. Two people, a man and a woman both in their 50s, were taken to Harborview Medical Center. The woman has life-threatening injuries and the man is in serious condition, said Kyle Moore, the Seattle Fire Department spokesman.
After a large call-out by the fire department, by 7 a.m., most of the flames had been brought under control.
Shortly after 6 a.m. there were multiple 911 calls reporting an explosion and the fire, Moore said. He said the department was calling in a second alarm fire because the fire was extending to other homes.
One house was fully involved in flames, with some flames shooting up into nearby trees. Flames were reaching houses nearby, which is what prompted the second call-out for the fire department, Moore said.
"We called for the second alarm bringing more fire engines, more trucks and making sure it doesn't extend to these structures," Moore said on KIRO-TV.
On Sunday, the neighborhood was the scene of a natural gas leak, said Bob Eriks, who lives about five or six blocks away.
Eriks said he and his wife, a Seattle Times employee, were heading back home from dinner when they stopped and talked to the police officer at Roosevelt Way NE near 125th and he confirmed that a leak had been investigated.
The fire Monday morning awakened Eriks, who thought perhaps a tree had fallen on his house. Then, he saw the news reports of the fire.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
