Just three days into the New Year, Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins says the fire department has had a busy start to 2024 due to vacant building fires. Two of those fires were in large vacant buildings. One was near Northgate on Tuesday and the other was on New Year's Day in Seattle's First Hill Neighborhood. It was a massive fire that caused significant damage to surrounding buildings. "[They are] very challenging structure fires in these vacant, derelict, dangerous buildings," said Scoggins. In 2021, there were 25 vacant building fires. In 2023, that number jumped to 42 fires. READ MORE: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle-leaders-major-uptick-vacant-building-fires/281-8e0d6ee5-8af0-428e-800b-dad258ff6950