SEATTLE — A fire destroyed a Jewish funeral home facility in Seattle’s Seward Park neighborhood early this morning, causing extensive damage and disrupting religious traditions.
Seattle Fire Department crews first responded to the fire and were posting about the response around 4 a.m. this morning. Fire officials say the fire began in an unattached garage, but spread to a nearby home before firefighters arrived.
The sole resident escaped unharmed, according to members of the synagogue and someone who worked at the funeral home. The American Red Cross is assisting that person with emergency shelter, food, clothing, and other urgent needs.
Both the garage and the residence are part of a funeral home linked to Bikur Cholim Machzikay Hadath (BCMH) Seattle, which serves as a center of religious tradition for many members of the Jewish community in South Seattle and the Seward Park area.
According to the president of the synagogue, Yousef Shulman, the facility is where bodies are prepared for burial in a formal fashion. Shulman says he’s devastated by the loss, and estimated that approximately 90% of all Jewish people in Washington state use this facility when seeking formal religious rites and burial under Jewish traditions and law.
Firefighters successfully doused the fire, but the building was destroyed, and parts of the roof had to be torn off to access hot spots. At one point during the response, flames re-ignited from the roof, shooting through sections of it.
Shulman said responders and others linked to the synagogue and funeral home were able to rescue two bodies that were in caskets from the funeral home. He says the bodies were fully prepared for burial under Jewish tradition, and the caskets were not damaged by the flames. The synagogue president confirmed that they have a place to store these bodies and others. However, the fire has paused the ability to perform key funeral services.
Shulman explained, “Right now, that’s on pause. We’re unable to help anybody... and it’s scary. How long is it going to take us to rebuild? Will the city allow us to rebuild?”
Both he and Ari Hoffman, former president of the synagogue and longtime member of the congregation, explained that funerals and burials must happen as quickly as possible according to Jewish tradition, often within 24 hours, though circumstances often dictate the length of time.
Hoffman noted the wide reach of their services, stating, “they [people seeking funeral services] call us sometimes from as far away as Idaho and sometimes Northern California or Oregon to do the funerals.”
Nobody was hurt in the fire, and the cause is currently under investigation. The entire roof of the funeral home collapsed, and the home next door also burned. Firefighters prevented the flames from spreading to other nearby homes.
Shulman remains uncertain about the path forward for the funeral home and funeral services after the fire, admitting, “it’s very critical, and we’re still trying to figure out where we can do this. Where we can properly, by Jewish law, prepare the body to do the preparations we need to do.”
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