4 predawn U District fires set deliberately, officials say

Seattle fire investigators say that four fires in the University District early Friday were deliberately set.

Investigators believe the fires are connected because of their proximity and the time they were set, said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick.

Nobody was hurt in the fires, one of which forced seven people from a house on 11th Avenue Northeast. Damage in all the fires is estimated at $385,000, Fitzpatrick said.

Fire crews were first called to the house in the 5200 block of 11th Avenue Northeast at 5:22 a.m. The blaze spread from the porch to the inside of the house, she said.

The six residents and a guest spending the night heard breaking glass and escaped, said Bob Niemann, who owns the rental home. The roommates will relocate, and Niemann hasn't decided if he'll rebuild.

Minutes later, a second fire broke out at a house nearby in the 5200 block of 12th Avenue Northeast, Fitzpatrick said. Mattresses underneath the deck were set on fire, damaging the porch. The flames didn't spread to the house, Fitzpatrick said.

The owner of that house said the two people living on the first floor have moved out until the porch is rebuilt.

About a half-hour later, two fires broke out in trash bins behind businesses at University Way Northeast and Brooklyn Avenue Northeast.

A scorch mark also was found on the porch of a home in the 4200 block of Brooklyn Avenue Northeast, which did not catch fire, Fitzpatrick said.

Fire investigators haven't said what caused the blazes.

"It's a mess. It's pretty much a loss, it looks like to me at my standing," Niemann said about his rental property. "Nobody is hurt, that's the most important thing to me."

Niemann said several of the six roommates, all students at the University of Washington, had lived together in the 11th Avenue Northeast house for several years. The students spent Friday looking for another place to live — they planned to stay together, Niemann said.

"We can't understand what would go through somebody's mind [to] burn somebody's property and endanger anyone's lives," Niemann said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com