Thanks to a CHS reader for this picture of the scene

Firefighters were battling a fire in a 1950s-era triplex Monday night after flames broke out in the Capitol Hill residential building in the 400 block of E Republican between Bellevue and Summit.

Just over 20 minutes later a second fire was reported in a three-story, 25-unit building in the 500 block of E Denny Way about a half mile away but that report turned out to be mistaken.

On E Republican, crews arrived shortly before 8:00 PM to find heavy flames visible on the main floor of the single-story building with a basement. Additional teams were deployed to protect a nearby residence.

Crews evacuated temporarily for safety after discovering the fire had originated in the basement, Seattle Fire reported. Firefighters quickly knocked down the basement blaze, checked the attic for extension, and conducted searches.

Another image of the scene from a CHS reader

No injuries were immediately reported. at the E Republican incident The cause remains under investigation.

Seattle Fire asked SPD to lock down the block around the E Republican building to prevent foot traffic in the area as they continued to deal with the aftermath of the fire.

Police were also on the lookout for a white chihuahua last seen running from the building to escape the fire. Police had last spotted the pet near Bellevue and Mercer.

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The cafe at the top of Pike/Pine is settling in after its summer opening and has recently expanded hours. It is now serving Wednesday through Sunday 7 AM to 4 PM.

CHS reported here in July on the new E Pike cafe from Jehú Torres Vega as the entrepreneur said he was channeling his Caribbean roots in creating the new warm and inviting addition to the neighborhood’s increasingly international coffee scene.

Its name translates to, appropriately, The Hill.

The new Capitol Hill cafe is focusing on Café Alto Grande, a premium Arabica coffee cultivated in the central mountain region of Puerto Rico and known for its sweet aroma, bright profile, and smooth finish. Sourcing the special bean consistently at scale is rare and expensive compared to more standard coffees of the Americas.

El Cerro is eating some of the cost of speciality with latte prices comparable to other Hill cafes working with more standard roasts.

El Cerro would also love for you to eat some pan sobao, handing out free slices of the delicious bread in a bid to get Capitol Hill hooked.

Meanwhile, coffee lovers looking for caffeinated flavors of the Caribbean will be happy to find specialities like the cafecito, a strong, sweet Cuban-style espresso topped with a sugary cream foam on the “De La Casa” menu.

El Cerro is open at 1316 E Pike. Learn more at elcerro.net.

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(Image: CHS)

A photo posted by the Unicorn last week: “Even though we’ve got some construction going on, the bar is still OPEN and we’re still having a grand ol’ time!”

An intersection’s utilities overhaul in the heart of Pike/Pine will take twice as long as originally planned after excavation crews ran into unmapped wiring, old concrete, and tangled utility lines, city officials confirmed. The even more intense punch of construction in the neighborhood is making for a challenging end of summer for residents and businesses in the area.

The round-the-clock intersection closure at E Pike and 12th Ave initially slated to last three weeks has been extended to roughly six weeks.

According to a Seattle Public Utilities spokesperson, while the project’s overall scope remains unchanged, digging beneath the street uncovered unexpected concrete, electrical wiring, and utility conflicts. The unanticipated conditions forced crews to install additional shoring to safely reach and replace 53 feet of failing, 12-inch sewer main buried 25 feet below the surface.

The intensity of the shutdown is due, of course, to the neighborhood’s aging infrastructure but is also an unfortunate byproduct of policies that put the work off for years despite obvious end of lifecycles for the old pipes and equipment below Pike/Pine.

SPU officials tell CHS that the emergency nature of the actively failing infrastructure ruled out breaking the repair into smaller, intermittent phases and staging the work in piecemeal closures would have dragged disruptions out for six to eight months and significantly elevated the risk of a catastrophic sewer failure, the utility said.

SPU owns and maintains approximately 1,400 miles of mainline sewers. Significant portions of the network date back over 100 years. As of about four years ago, roughly 40% of Seattle’s core system was vitrified clay pipe installed between the 1890s and 1940, according to city documentation.

Rather than wholesale replacement, SPU assesses pipes on a likelihood vs. consequence matrix. Pipes beneath major arterial intersections or near sensitive waterways are flagged for higher-priority intervention. Major projects like the overhaul that created the RapidRide G also provide opportunities to dig in and upgrade the system.

Adding to complications are the multiple departments involved in the work. In Seattle, street projects are managed through a multi-agency framework where the Seattle Department of Transportation acts as the regulatory gatekeeper of the city’s public right-of-way. When a project slips schedule or creates severe local impacts, the public and business owners sometimes struggle to identify who is in charge. SDOT manages the detours and permits, SPU manages the sewer, City Light handles the electrical vaults, and Puget Sound Energy manages gas lines. If a project stalls, agencies often point to other utilities’ uncompleted work or review processes.

Seattle’s historic core including Capitol Hill contains over a century of undocumented utility lines, abandoned streetcar tracks, and unrecorded concrete vaults. When one agency begins digging and encounters an unmapped line belonging to another utility, work can stall and projects quickly expand.

Another issue is staging the work. Agencies generally work sequentially rather than concurrently in the same trench for safety and liability reasons. If SCL or PSE is delayed in relocating a wire or gas pipe, SPU’s contractor must hold, pushing out the entire timeline and SDOT’s final repaving date.

With the extended timeline at 12th and Pike compounding concerns for surrounding retailers and nightlife venues, the city says it is ramping up mitigation efforts to keep local commerce afloat. Representatives stated that outreach teams are conducting door-to-door visits with business owners to resolve loading and access issues, hosting weekly virtual check-ins, and pairing with the Office of Economic Development for evening visits.

City officials emphasized that pedestrian access to all storefronts remains open, aided by new informational flyers and “Businesses are Open” signage though some property owners say they are having to foot the bill for signs for their commercial tenants.

Limited vehicle turn movements also continue under the direction of on-site traffic officers. SPU noted it is coordinating directly with fall neighborhood events, including Elysian’s Great Pumpkin Beer Festival on October 3rd to minimize impact.

The issues have been extra punishing for the nearby Unicorn bar. It suffered through a three-month closure at the end of last summer after a fire damaged the E Pike building it calls home.

“Come support your local bar, grab a drink, eat some food, and hang out with us while we ride out the construction chaos,” the bar wrote in a social media update last week.

CHS reported here in July on the $6.5 million project originally planned for a 90-day cycle of closures and construction to replace 115-year-old infrastructure in the neighborhood.

Video sent to CHS by an area property owner

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(Image: City of Seattle)

Mayor Katie Wilson signed her executive order to accelerate Seattle’s Vision Zero initiative in an event Friday near an underway pedestrian safety construction project outside South Seattle’s Cleveland High School.

“Seattle should be a city where families can feel safe getting where they need to go — whether they’re walking their kids to school, biking to the park, or taking transit,” Wilson said in an announcement of the order. “We’ve made important progress, but every serious injury or death on our streets is one too many. We know what makes our streets safer. This Executive Order is about turning our commitment into action — getting proven safety improvements on the ground and bringing the full City together to prevent serious injuries and deaths.”

The executive order directs the Seattle Department of Transportation to fast-track high-priority safety improvements across high-crash corridors. Key measures include completing the SW Wildwood Place protected bike lane by late 2026, advancing Phase 2 of the 12th Ave S Safety Project, increasing intersection visibility through daylighting, and upgrading 19 high-collision locations along major routes like Aurora Ave N and Rainier Ave S.

The order including the emphasis on 12th Ave comes following the June tragedy at 12th and Yesler that took the life of 30-year-old Christian Salyer.

To reduce dangerous driving speeds, the directive also deploys pedestrian head-start signals at 40 intersections, adjusts signal timing, and authorizes the phased rollout of automated traffic safety cameras across up to 10 locations. The specific list of the 40 intersections and other locations were not included in the announcement.

Additionally, the order establishes a citywide interdepartmental safety team, creates a public-facing traffic safety dashboard, and targets expanding the School Streets Program to 40% of eligible schools. The city will also mandate enhanced safety features on municipal and contractor fleets while lobbying the Washington State Legislature to lower the legal blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) limit to 0.05%.

The order joins legislative efforts underway at the city council under the Seattle SAFER Streets Act, a legislative package introduced last week to update the Seattle Municipal Code to formally adopt SDOT’s Vision Zero Action Plan as the city’s official guide, requiring the Safe System Approach to guide arterial speed limits, infrastructure planning, and intersection reviews.

Seattle’s primary Vision Zero goal is to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2030. In 2025, Seattle recorded 27 traffic fatalities, with pedestrian deaths — like the collision with a food delivery driver that killed Lilli Moreno as she crossed E Pine in February — representing the majority of fatal incidents across the city.

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