An abandoned house owned by the city of Kent burned down Friday morning in the 22300 block of Russell Road, along the Green River.
The fire in the two-story home was reported at 5:20 a.m., and the smoke column could be seen for miles in the still morning air, according to a Puget Sound Fire media release. When firefighters from Puget Sound Fire and South King Fire and Rescue arrived, they found the entire second floor of the house engulfed in flames.
The incident commander determined that the house, which had a chain link fence around it, was too far gone to risk sending firefighters inside, so crews set up hose lines around the house to extinguish the fire and keep it from igniting a barn just to the south.
Because the home had been boarded up, firefighters had difficulty getting water onto the center of the fire on the second floor. The incident commander allowed the fire to burn through the roof to create a hole which could be used to get water inside.
Because of the amount of fire damage, a fire investigator stated that it is unlikely that a cause can be determined.
According to several people, people have been seen climbing over the fence surrounding the property and a fire crew reported that a sliding glass door appeared to have been forced open prior to their arrival.
The city owns the property because it’s in the path of a proposed Lower Russell Road levee expansion by Kent and the King County Flood Control District. The city bought the property in order expand the levee to increase flood protection and change insurance requirements if the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) certifies the levee.
The house sits on the same piece of property as the historic Dvorak Barn built in 1925 that a group of Kent residents is trying to preserve.
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