Clothing, trash and other available flammables were used to start the fires between 1:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Sunday at the Park Ridge Apartments, authorities said.
The number of people responsible was unclear but there was no doubt that all the fires were arson, police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said.
``It's not very common for 22 laundry rooms to catch fire on the same night,'' Bryant said.
No injuries were reported, each fire was contained within the laundry room and city Fire Marshal Warren Burns said the total damage was about $22,000, an average of $1,000 per fire.
``Each of the laundry rooms is below one and beside two living units, so there are people on three sides. We are very fortunate the fires stayed in the laundry rooms and stayed small,'' Burns told KING Television of Seattle.
Burns said fire crews responded to the first call about 1:30 a.m., quickly put out the flames and were about to leave when four more fires were reported. By the time the last fire was out, 32 firefighters had responded.
George Perkins, whose bedroom is above one of the laundry rooms, said his wife smelled smoke and awakened him about 4 a.m. Looking outside, he called to firefighters he saw working on another fire.
``Hey, I've got mine. Please check this out. I have a 6-day-old baby,'' Perkins recalled saying.
``The worst part is our smoke alarm didn't work,'' he said.
The 32-year-old apartment complex lacks a sprinkler system, but manager Jenna Nolan said some of the affected smoke alarms did go off.
Nolan said she had received no threats and saw no suspicious activity before the fires. To improve security, she said the would try to replace the individual laundry rooms with a single laundry building.
``I think the person who set it has no regard for people's lives,'' she said.
Information from: The Herald
