KENT, Wash. — Five separate fires are under investigation in Kent after a busy morning for the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority on Monday.
All of the fires happened within four blocks of each other.
Two of them happened behind the Firestone Auto Shop located off 240th Street.
The second occurred just steps away, burning a pile of tires.
A car was completely destroyed as a result of one of these fires. Officials did not state whether it was an abandoned vehicle or if it belonged to someone.
Puget Sound Fire says it began receiving calls around 3:30 a.m. about several fires in the general area of 240th Street between 104th and 108th avenues.
Two of the other three fires were dumpster fires and the final fire was in a wooded area near an encampment.
Officials say this is concerning because of the hot temperatures expected in the area, which can cause fires to grow dramatically.
“With the dry weather that we’ve had, we had a very wet spring and now things are drying out, so we have a lot of growth, a lot of fuel,” said Pat Pawlak, Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority division chief. “In these pockets of areas, whether it’s East Hill or in the valley or even outside of Kent where you have these pockets of wooded areas with houses surrounding them, you know we get into a situation depending on weather conditions, wind conditions could become a fast moving fire that moves towards the homes.”
Pawlak says it’s not common for them to see a spree of fires like they saw this morning.
He also encourages people to keep dumpsters away from buildings because any resulting fire can become a much bigger problem.
The cause of the fires is still under investigation.