First of all, thank you for being here, members of the press.
We're very excited to sort of present and explain what we're trying to do here in Seattle.
Of course, it's an emergency legislation.
Councilmembers Kettle and Morales speak to that a little bit.
I do want to thank both of them for being here and for making sure that the Council unanimously passed this urgent public safety issue for our community.
So we're pleased to announce here today we'll be signing this public safety legislation that will basically expedite the Demolition and remediation of dangerous vacant buildings in Seattle.
We know very recently why this is so important.
I think all of us are aware that even this week in Ravenna, we had a fire in an abandoned building that killed one person and injured three others.
These kinds of tragedies demonstrate to us how urgent and necessary this bill is.
Unsafe vacant buildings can pose real hazards, safety hazards to our first responders and the surrounding communities and the people that may try to live within these buildings and they threaten the health and safety of everyone in all of these neighborhoods.
These unmaintained buildings can be opportunities for unauthorized trespassing and arson and drug use and or the illegal behavior that endangered, again, residents and our first responders, and we realized they could be sort of an attraction to those that may not have the right safeguards in their lives to protect themselves.
This city must be able to act swiftly to abate and remediate these risks, and this legislation is designed to do exactly that, to give the Seattle Fire Department a new tool to take quick action to remedy or demolish again dangerous and derelict buildings.
Our fire department has made us aware that there are over 40 buildings that are potentially unsafe and pose danger to life or property.
Fires related to vacant buildings have surged in recent years with 77 fires in vacant buildings in 2021, 91 fires in 2022, 130 fires in 2023. And again, I mentioned that three people died in vacant building fires this year.
So we're not trending in the right direction.
And again, this is what this legislation is designed to do.
Combined with our legislation last year to strengthen the enforcement of the city's vacant building monitoring program, we're taking urgent action to make sure that our unoccupied buildings do not become public safety risks.
And with that, I'll let Chief Harold Scoggins discuss more details of this legislation, and I look forward to the remarks and words shared by Councilmembers Kettle and Morales.
Chief Scoggins?
So good afternoon.
I'm Harold Scoggins, Fire Chief of the Seattle Fire Department.
You know, I want to lead with a thank you to Mayor Harold for his leadership in prioritizing the safety of the public and of our firefighters.
That's so important.
Your continued support of the fire department's efforts towards improving safety within our department and the community is appreciated by all of our Seattle firefighters and all of our professional staff.
So thank you.
Councilmember Kettle and Councilmember Morales, thank you for co-sponsoring this very important legislation.
On behalf of the entire Seattle Fire Department, I extend my gratitude to each one of you and to the full Council for unanimously passing this important bill.
while we know derelict buildings are unsightly for neighborhoods it goes much beyond this in regards to safety when buildings remain vacant and become derelict they present many challenges for firefighters when we respond to these locations our firefighters have extensive training on responding to building fires but when the structure is derelict There's often holes in the floors, stairwells are often missing, structural instability and other hazardous conditions often exist.
These are the unknowns that are a heightened threat to our safety.
Fire departments across the nation continue to raise concerns with leaving buildings in a derelict condition.
Seattle is not alone in this.
The dangers of these buildings present have tragically resulted in the death of firefighters and community members around the nation.
A harrowing example is a fire that occurred in 2022 in Baltimore, where three firefighters were killed while on scene of a second alarm fire in an abandoned town hall.
The interior of the structure had collapsed while they were inside fighting the fire.
And just this week in Seattle, we have responded to three fires in vacant buildings, some of which were in a derelict condition.
On June 4th at around 4 a.m., we responded to a second alarm fire in a vacant structure in the Ravenna neighborhood.
The structure had experienced a fire back on May 8th, just about one month ago, while occupied with tenants and has since been vacant.
The building was not in a derelict condition, and the property owner did take the proper steps to board it up, so it was not yet on the fire department's dangerous or derelict building list.
Unfortunately, people still figured out a way to trespass on the property.
This fire sadly resulted in the death of a woman who was inside at the time the fire broke out.
It should also be noted that a person also jumped out of the fourth floor window and the firefighters did do three amazing rescues on this structure.
Later that morning, on that same day, we responded to the 1300 block of NE 66th Street for a small fire in another vacant building.
And just last night, on June 6th, we responded to a derelict duplex in the Leschi neighborhood.
The fire was primarily located in the basement and there were fortunately no injuries.
A final example is the massive three alarm fire that occurred on January 1st of this year in the First Hill neighborhood.
The fire caused the roof of the derelict structure to collapse and it spread to the adjacent apartment building, displacing all residents in those units.
And if you remember that morning, it was a very cold morning on New Year's.
Roads in the areas were closed for weeks while the four story building was being demolished.
This new legislation amends the fire code and gives myself and the fire marshal the ability to order and complete remediation or demolition of a dangerous, vacant, and derelict building.
Our goal at the Fire Prevention Division is to always make sure an attempt is made to work with the property owners towards demolition when the building becomes derelict, vacant, and irreparable.
But when we are presented with the extreme circumstances of a building that remains derelict and has had numerous responses from the fire department to the location, we can now take action if there is an imminent risk to safety of firefighters and the public.
The data speaks for itself, as the mayor mentioned.
In 2021, we had 71 of these fires in derelict buildings.
In 2022, we had 91. And in 2023, we had 130 of these fires.
And so far to date, in 2024, we have had 35 fires in derelict buildings.
In addition to fire responses, we regularly respond to vacant structures for burst water pipes and also for medical responses.
I am confident that this is a step in the right direction.
This legislation provides us with the new tool for our toolbox to continue prioritizing the safety of the community and the safety of our firefighters.
And I want to thank once again Mayor Harold for his ongoing support of the Seattle Fire Department and Councilmember Kettle and Councilmember Morales for their co-sponsoring this legislation.
Next, I would like to introduce Councilmember Kettle.
Thank you.
First, good afternoon.
I want to say thank you to Fire Station 25, a beautiful station, something to be proud of, Chief Scoggins.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
In January, I took off my oath of office.
That day, I committed to creating a safe base for our community.
I'm happy to report that the City Council voted unanimously to pass this legislation as our commitment to protect our firefighters, to protect our neighbors and to address the permissive environment that underlines our public safety challenges.
Again, our commitment to the firefighters, our neighbors, and to address the permissive environment.
These challenges are constant.
As mentioned, there was a fire in the vacant building in Roosevelt on the day that this bill was passed, where one individual was killed and three were injured.
In the last year, there were 130 fires in vacant buildings and three deaths.
Unauthorized access and trespassing leads oftentimes to these fires, and our firefighters are being put at risk.
The inability to abate or even demolish these hazards has contributed to this permissive environment that I speak of.
I've been working closely with Mayor Harrell and his team, Chief Scoggins and his team as well, to make sure that this legislation will help the fire department deal with these buildings that pose an immediate threat to our city.
Buildings like the one at 63rd and Roosevelt.
This is the second time it's mentioned that this building has caught fire within a month, and this new authority will allow Chief to move faster and make sure these unsafe buildings like this are secured.
As he said the other day, but a period at the end of that sentence.
We will now also be able to recruit the cost of the abatement of these buildings, reducing the cost to the city.
Our committee was very thoughtful in our consideration of this legislation, and I'd like to thank Vice Chair Saka for his insightful suggestions on the bill, along with our work with the city attorney's office.
As you can imagine, this is very complex.
And I would like to finally thank my co-sponsor, Council Member Morales, for whose districts too is particularly affected by these vacant buildings.
And as chair of the Land Use Committee, is gonna be an important partner as we move forward to deal with the vacant building problem that we have in our city.
At the end of the day, it's about public service.
So thank you to the firefighters, particularly here in Fire Station 25 for putting on the uniform, and thank you for answering the calls.
And I hope this bill demonstrates our commitment to protecting firefighters and protecting our neighborhoods.
Thank you very much.
Chief, thank you.
Council Member Morales?
Thank you.
Not the tall one of the group.
Thank you very much, Councilmember Kettle.
I do want to thank Fire Chief Scoggins and thank the mayor for working with us on this legislation.
And thanks to everyone for being here.
It's good to be here to finally sign the vacant buildings legislation.
As has been mentioned, over the last two years, District 2 has experienced over 60 fires in derelict buildings.
District 2 includes Yesler Terrace, the Chinatown International District, down the Rainier Valley to Rainier Beach.
From the fire at the Old Borrachini's Bakery, to the Baskin Robbins, to the Burger King, and of course the Jumbo Lot, all of which are on Rainier Avenue in District 2. We have been heavily impacted by fires in vacant buildings in the South End.
And we know that unfortunately, people have been losing their lives in these fires, one in District 2, and as we just heard, one the other morning in North Seattle.
These buildings represent a safety risk to our community members, to the individuals who may be in or near the buildings, as well as to our first responders, our firefighters, and the folks who are trying to keep these buildings safe.
Our city workers who bravely respond to these fires deserve better from us, and that's what this legislation is intended to do, is to make sure that they are protected.
So this legislation marks a turning point.
I'm heartened that we passed this bill, that it will go into effect immediately and received unanimous support from the city council.
I started working with Chief Scoggins late last year to understand what was happening, particularly in District 2, because we've had so many fires, particularly on Rainier Avenue.
And when Councilmember Kettle joined the Council, we got to work immediately to understand from SDCI, from the Chief, and from the City Attorney what power we had and what we could do to really start to remedy these problems.
So I appreciate the partnership of everybody who's been involved in crafting this legislation.
I want to thank Councilmember Kettle again.
I thank the Mayor and Chief Scoggins and all of my colleagues on the Council for helping get this critical, life-saving legislation passed.
And I am now happy to introduce Ellen Green from the First Hill Improvement Association.
Thank you for having me.
The First Hill Improvement Association is delighted to be endorsing this legislation.
We want to commend the mayor and the city council for this decisive action and express our gratitude, deepest gratitude, toward the fire department for their persistent dedication in keeping our neighborhood safe.
Thank you.
There have been many First Hill fires as well, as mentioned previously, where people have lost their homes, our neighborhood lost vetoes, and Madison Street was shut down for myriad weeks.
In addition, the Prosh House has been destroyed by fires and now poses a serious health hazard to our community, with multiple lives lost there already.
But we see four benefits to this new legislation.
First of all, increased safety.
As mentioned, abandoned buildings pose fire hazards, and especially once they've been lit, they pose a repeated threat to residents and our emergency response folks.
So enabling the demolition of these buildings could reduce the risk of fire and increase safety.
Secondly, we see this as a possibility to decrease crime.
These idle structures pose hot spots for vandalism and drug use, which negatively impacts residents as well as neighboring businesses, but really it impacts everyone involved.
So by being able to demolish these buildings, we can eliminate some of these havens for crime.
Third, this will provide an opportunity for positive development.
So the demolition of now derelict buildings can then pave paths to initiate new development that will benefit neighborhoods and stimulate economic growth, as well as create positively engaging places.
And finally, we see this as a chance to foster community.
So no doubt a burned down building is an eyesore to the community and detracts from neighborhood appeal.
But being able to remove these buildings can improve aesthetics of neighborhoods and create welcoming places to residents and workers and visitors in our neighborhoods.
We believe that clean, well-maintained environments can help facilitate pride and community, as well as lead to further beautification efforts.
So we're very committed to initiatives like this that help benefit the people of First Hill and other neighborhoods, and we look forward to everything that we'll do in terms of creating a safer, more beautiful, and more vibrant Seattle.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ellen.
We're going to do a ceremonial signing here because we want it to kick in immediately, and then we'll take some questions after if there are any questions.
So we're going to sign right now.
I don't think it's going to say anything.
if there are any questions I'd be more than happy to address any and if there's not we're gonna go back to work any questions for the rest of this year because of funding can you explain that a little bit more sure uh chief would you take that did you hear the question i didn't hear the first so uh the 40 buildings are those can they get a list of those 40 buildings and uh the four buildings that we tried we're going to try to address is there funding issues associated with that why only four i guess
oh got it so thank you for the question the list is not available to the community we're working at various stages with the city attorney's office trying to address different issues with those buildings so it's not available we're working through which buildings are selected to move forward with first so we haven't identified that my team and i will be meeting next week and we'll be ready to move forward next week.
And the funding, thank you to the mayor and the council.
They funded this legislation with, I believe, $350,000.
That would get us started, but our goal is to seek reimbursement.
So if we have to take an action like fencing or boarding up or even up to demolition, we will then direct bill the property owner, and if we are not successful there, we will then be able to lean the property.
All that's important pieces of this legislation.
for figuring out those four buildings?
You know, we're looking at the buildings that are the most hazardous, the ones that are imminent threats to public safety.
You know, if we've been there multiple times for a number of fires, if we've been there for a number of medical emergencies, one of our fire prevention inspectors actually goes out and does inspections.
So if the floors, the walls, the ceilings, the stairwells are missing, You have just changed the fire dynamics of this structure, so it becomes unsafe for a firefighter to go in, let alone for a person to be in there.
Our buildings are constructed with fire and life safety in mind, with the one-hour drywall, the two-hour stairwells, the fire and life safety systems.
So once all this is compromised, you've now changed the fire dynamics of this structure, and it has immediately become unsafe.
So we're evaluating all of those things.
Thank you, Chief.
Thank you very much.
And Council Members, again, thank you very much.
Okay, everyone have a great day, and we're going to go back to work.
Thank you.