Bulldozing of fire circle has arts group steaming mad

It was called the "fire circle," an earthen sculpture built in Fremont on the banks of the Ship Canal.

But some people took it too literally.

The Seattle Parks Department bulldozed the site last month after complaints by the Seattle Fire Department that it was a hazard.

But members of the Fremont Arts Council, which commissioned the work, are angry they were not told the city planned to remove it.

"The decision to destroy this artwork was made without taking input from the artists, the sponsor, the users of the site or the general public," said eight board members of the Arts Council in a letter to parks Superintendent Betty Jean Brooks. "We find this highly disturbing."

The Parks Department said it posted signs before the area was flattened. Two sculpted vertical rocks at the site will remain.

The city says the sculpture was destroyed because of the edict by the Fire Department. Twice the city put up fencing and a sign saying fires weren't allowed without a permit. The sign and fencing were burned. When Parks put up a third, supposedly permanent metal sign, someone threw it into the Ship Canal.

The Fire Department was threatening fines against the Parks Department of $1,000 a day if the pit wasn't razed.

"It became a nuisance," said Lt. Harold Webb, with the Fire Department. "People were making the fires into an enormous size." He said a permit was needed to burn at the pit, and that permits weren't being obtained.

The Parks Department said, "the Fremont Fire Pit is in violation of the City of Seattle fire code. Seattle Parks and Recreation has been ordered by the Fire Marshal to immediately remove the illegal fire pit."

Architect Steven Badanes, who designed the Fremont Troll and built the fire pit with University of Washington students in 1994, said he's not taking the destruction personally, but believes the Parks Department was heavy-handed.

"This is life, and you have to pick your battles," he said. "This isn't one I would pick. But the Parks Department, well within its rights to do what it did, could have been nicer."

The sculpture, an earthen berm, was on city-owned property in Fremont's Canal Park. The doughnut-shaped mound was built as part of neighborhood-design project financed by the Arts Council.

"I knew it would be used as a fire pit," Badanes said.

According to parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter, the Fire Department first contacted parks officials in 2005 about problems with the fire pit.

"People were burning fires larger than those allowed and were burning illegal materials," she said. "These responses can have a serious impact on Seattle Fire's ability to respond to other emergencies."

She said the city and the Fremont Arts Council reached an agreement that signs would be posted saying a permit was necessary for large fires, and parks offered to work with the Arts Council to apply for money to hire an artist to redesign the fire circle.

"The Fremont Arts Council did not follow up," Potter said.

Since the beginning of 2006, she said, the Fire Department responded to 23 illegal fires at the pit, the most recent one on July 14. That prompted the Fire Department to send the letter to the Parks Department.

Rodman Miller, a member of the Arts Council who signed the letter, said vagrants were building fires at the park, which caused the Fire Department's concerns, but he was upset the sculpture was destroyed without notice to the Arts Council.

"The bottom line is our parks are being dictated by homeless people," he said. "This was built a number of years ago as a ceremonial space. A lot of people got married there, it's a place where people do drum circles. Some call it almost a sacred space in Fremont. I find it very unacceptable."

Barbara Luecke, project coordinator when the fire circle was built, said the Fremont arts community is aware of the concerns about homeless people, "but we need to address this without bulldozing. This was a beloved place. People gathered there."

In its letter, the Arts Council said its mission is to use art to build community and the fire circle exemplifies that mission.

"The recent city action threatens to weaken our community by destroying its art, and that threat is worsened by the absence of discussion, consultation or visible civic process," the council wrote.

A meeting with the arts group is set for September.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com