I was also curious about the balcony with the pile of stuff on it. I guess, now I know.

btw, this is across from where I live and i slept through the entire thing. Only when walking out the front door to work with mikki did we see what happened.

Thank god I'll be outta there at the end of december.

Yes, that was bad! A three-helicopter wake-up, still dark. I didn't see the fire until the flames went through the roof and illuminated the smoke from below. Word on the street after the sun came up was that it was "a transient."

There will be more- moves, more evictions. Koodoos to a man that made his last stance- violent free, except to himself- and even print worthy. Time to wake up from the boom. How do we keep people in their homes without being evicted? (FYI I'm not evicted)

Then when everything was under control I got kind of bored and went to get dressed for work (and left). Now I'm feeling twitchy after all the adrenaline and really want to go home and check on everything...

The lot will sit VACANT. It won't be built on . Watch. Who is going to develop this?. Instead of going, oh shit, no one will buy- we leave it as a parking lot. There will be many more to come... even if none can afford gas.

I remember the old guy - he always had these two station wagons parked beneath the building just filled to the brim with shit. I saw those wagons parked on 12th avenue recently, and thought maybe he moved. But when I heard there was a fatality, I assumed it had to be him.

He was one cantankerous curmudgeon. Sometimes I would sit in my car in front of his building when picking up or dropping off my girlfriend at home, and he would try to chase me away. He'd yell, "Move it or lose it, buddy" and threaten to call the cops.

From a land-use perspective, the building's destruction won't deprive the neighborhood of anything except a dreary little patch of ugly. And that particular lot is possibly the most desirable building site on Pike/Pine in terms of access to, and view of, downtown.

Those pesky helicopters woke me up too. Little did I know it was a big 'ol fire 2 blocks from me.

BA, I hope this means more drunken nights at Summit Pub and Clever Dunnes.

He was a great building manager and I'm very sad and sorry that this happened.

My partner and I lived above his unit for more than two years. It was horrible to see both his and our old unit torched.

I guess they are not releasing his name so I won't either, but he and his late wife (who passed away just a few years ago) were great people. It's a sad day.

Word.

If anyone knows anything about funeral arrangements for him, please post and let me know.

Also, I have nothing but contempt for the building owners. While I was living there, about two years ago, they decided they were going to turn the apartments into condos, and they let the residents know this was their plan without ever telling us when. My roommate and I liked the place, so we decided to wait until they told us we had to leave. A few months later they start tearing out all of the walls and electrical systems in the foyer and the hallways. Any apartment that was already vacated was completely gutted, usually by extremely loud work crews at 7 in the morning. The place looked like a warzone, with exposed wires and jagged chunks of wood all over the place.

We moved out shortly afterwards, but I know for a fact that some people continued to live there until recently, basically in the middle of a construction zone. I'm shocked no one was ever injured and that the building didn't completely collapse.

Two years later, the place was still in the exact condition it was in when I moved out, and now this. What a waste.

When this building was discussed several months ago on Slog, it was derided as ugly, and it's destruction welcome. I chided gently (I always chide gently) that they were nice BIG apartments with REAL balconies (much like my beloved Olive Crest, which met a similar fate a few years back).

However, everyone was still having their "How-dare-they-name-the-Ballard-Dennys-a-landmark?" glamour fits, and this was regarded as merely another Ballard Dennys.

I didn't know the old man, but I believe I met his wife several decades back when I thought about living there. (They didn't accept cats, so I couldn't) She was a game old gal who'd been a hostess at Vons or Mannings or someplace like that for many years. She was impressed that I worked at the Olympic Hotel. So was I, at the time.

First floor = where the fire started.
Fourth floor = the man's apartment was here.

Does it make sense to suggest a link between his eccentric hobbies, his clutter, and the fire THREE FLOORS AWAY? Looks to me like it started ELSEWHERE.

Stay tuned for an oily alliance of the building's owners, Seattle's prim-lipped apologists for business as usual, and those who'd rather believe that flying monkeys did it, than to investigate a member of Seattle's real estate mafia.

We'll be expected to believe that the usual suspects, that is, "transients," or pure chance, or "faulty" wiring performed this remarkable feat of securing a real estate deal precisely on time. And we'll be expected to be NICE about it.

So. Do you feel NICE? Do you believe in coincidences this big, and this profitable?

Fire