Structure Fire Destroys Building At Fircrest Campus In Shoreline

SHORELINE, WA - A fire destroyed a large building at the state Fircrest Residential Habilitation Center campus Thursday morning. The two-alarm blaze broke out just before 9 a.m. inside the laundry building at the north end of the campus along 15th Avenue Northwest near Northeast 155th Street.

Fircrest is home to about 200 developmentally disabled people, all over age 16, and about 600 staff. All staff and residents were accounted for, and there were no injuries, state Department of Social and Health Services spokeswoman Lisa Copeland told Patch.com. There are a number of residential cottages adjacent to the laundry facility, but those were evacuated when the fire broke out.

The 10,600 square-foot laundry building itself, Copeland said, is a total loss.

The laundry facility was a vital part of Fircrest, Copeland said, and the facility is trying to make arrangements to have laundry done elsewhere, possibly at the Rainier State School in Buckley.

The 90-acre Fircrest campus was built in 1942 as a military hospital. The fire drew firefighters from around the region, including Shoreline, Seattle, Kirkland, Bothell, Woodinville, and Snohomish.

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