INCIDENT DESCRIPTION
At 6:23 am on February 9, 2025, the Seattle Fire Department responded to a reported structure fire at 11th Avenue NW and NW 54th Street, in the city’s northwest Ballard neighborhood. The entirety of Station 18, located only a handful of blocks away, was first due, and found a fully involved apartment complex under construction. The fire in the half-completed structure was also extending to an adjacent townhome. A second alarm was requested at 6:29 am, just two minutes after arrival. Crews reported powerlines coming down in front of the fire building. Battalion 4 was incident command while Engine 18 was fire attack and Ladder 8 utilized the aerial ladder to pour water from above. Crews fought the fire in a defensive strategy, pouring water from a safe distance for firefighter safety. At 6:40 am, a third alarm was requested by Deputy (chief) 1, who assumed command on arrival. Around 40 fire units responded to the fire. One person was rescued from the adjacent townhome that the fire had extended to, but she did not need hospital transport. The building under construction was completely destroyed, and partially collapsed. The adjacent 8-unit townhome suffered significant damage and the American Red Cross reported 10-20 people are displaced. The cause of the fire is under investigation, and no other injuries were reported.
Sources:
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/seattle-fire-crews-battle-3-alarm-fire-in-ballard/281-a38c70c5-224c-446e-a87b-7a5a2d190ea1
Firefighters respond to residential fire on NW 54th St in Ballard
Image of aftermath:
https://images.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/02092025_Ballard-Fire_132518.jpg?d=780×596
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VIDEO TIMELINE
See pinned comment; not enough description space here!
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AUDIO
This is real audio from SFD Channel 1 (structure fire ops) from the incident. It is important to note audio is NOT synced with footage. This is only the first 15 minutes of audio, placed one after another. There were nearly 1200 radio transmissions on Channel 1, and this is around the first 100.
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UNITS
See pinned comment; not enough description space here!
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MY NOTES
This unfortunate fire marks the first multiple alarm fire of the year. This is also my longest video of pure responses yet, with 31 units. I went unit-by-unit to retrieve the most amount of response footage. It took a lot of “research” of checking estimated response paths, asking around for reserve apparatus status, and checking timestamps. As usual, gathering this archived footage would not be possible without SafetyVid who have graciously granted access to their platform.
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MY LINKS
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CREDITS & NEWS LINKS
This channel and its content is inspired HEAVILY by LucasFirebuffing’s channel, “SeattleTrafficCams.” I highly recommend you check him out, his videos are very well made: @/SeattleTrafficCams
Cameras operated by Seattle Department of Transportation
Video archived by SafetyVid.org – Thank you!!
Audio provided by sfdlive.com – Amazing website!
Video edited by me using ClipChamp by Microsoft (CC almost couldn’t handle the number of clips)
https://sfdlive.com/?id=F250018683
https://x.com/SeattleFire/status/1888597194829451360
The American Red Cross responded to this incident to assist those displaced.
https://www.redcross.org/donate
WTCR seeks to highlight the everyday operations of first responders in several major Washington state cities, as seen from public traffic cameras. This channel focuses on their actions, responses, and of course their shiny trucks. WTCR is not monetized.
Thanks for watching! These descriptions sure take a long time to write…