"The 2017 ST [Seattle Times] article you wrote about wildfire has a comment on it by me as "Ballard1975" about a 2014 fire in Renton (approx three miles SW of the ECC). After I wrote my comment, I sent a link for the article to the Renton FD Deputy Chief mentioned, ______, and apologized in advance for getting any details wrong, and to just be aware it was in print. He responded by email letting me know that nothing in my comment was off base.
Anyway, the typical weather on that July day was punctuated by high winds. The wind caused huge problems with the fire, as in three apartment buildings burning at once, absorbing three alarms' worth of apparatus just within the complex. A fire moving into a sub-division via power line right-of-way was a possibility. Suburban fire departments in my area currently assign three engines and one ladder, plus chiefs, medics, etc., to a working house fire. Seattle initially assigns a minimum of four engines and two ladders. That couldn't have happened that day if multiple houses ignited in quick succession. Chief _______ already had units responding from as far away as Pierce and Snohomish counties. The well was dry.
But it's just a matter of time; human-caused (plane, train, pipeline mishap) or natural, like an earthquake, could get things going. With the skinny lots, zero-lot-line and similar construction happening now, an earthquake on a windy summer day would get ugly real fast in urban areas with a lot of vegetation (e.g., Oakland/Berkeley 1991) if a large number of fires broke out. San Francisco in 1906 and Kobe (Great Hanshin) in 1995 also come to mind."
