FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Neighbors had to beat back a brush fire with garden hoses before firefighters could get to the scene.
Tate Ware was among those defending their homes. He said he just kept thinking: “Wet the grass away from the house, so it would, you know, stop the flow of the fire.”
The fire off a trail behind his home near Sherwood Forest Elementary gutted Ware’s gazebo, and burned the back fences of several homes along the block. Charred grass on several lawns shows how close it came to catching at least three houses.
“The homeowners helped us out a great deal,” said Assistant Chief Chuck Kahler with the South King Fire Department.
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Kahler said Ware and his neighbors absolutely saved their own homes by not just spraying down the lawn, but also by keeping up with their landscaping.
“Their grass is cut,” Kahler said. “That means the flame area was just inches.”
Investigators say either a firework or a spark from the power lines above started the fire. Neighbors said fireworks have been a problem along the trail recently.
“We’ve heard fireworks every night for the last few nights,” Ware said.
“They think nobody will see them back there,” another neighbor chimed in. “But it’s too dry [for that] this time of year, especially this year.”
Fireworks are banned in Federal Way.
The conditions are so dangerous, officials declared a statewide burn ban on Monday.
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