Lakewood fire killed 2, destroyed 9 homes. Residents now ‘closing this chapter’
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- A Lakewood brush fire killed two mobile home park residents in August 2023.
- The fire spread from a nearby vacant lot. Several residents sued that property’s owner.
- The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum.
Several people who lived in a Lakewood mobile home park that burned in a deadly brush fire have settled a lawsuit against the owner of a nearby property where the blaze reportedly began.
The five-acre fire that swept through the 40-home Jamestown Estates in August 2023 left two men dead: Patrick Zmiarovich, 70, and Zackery McDonough, 31. It destroyed nine homes and displaced 23 people, including nine children, The News Tribune previously reported.
In April 2024, three married couples and a man who lived at the resident-owned mobile home park filed suit against VGU Washington Estates, LLC, alleging that the fire started from a fire pit on nearby vacant land that VGU Washington Estates, as the landowner, failed to properly maintain. The administrator of Zmiarovich’s estate was added as a plaintiff in December, court records show.
The lawsuit was dismissed on April 14 after a settlement was reached for an undisclosed amount of money earlier this year, according to Pierce County Superior Court records.
“This loss of life and property was preventable,” attorney Ashton Dennis, who represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement Sunday. “While no amount of money can undo the tragedy on August 4 (2023), this resolution allows these families to begin closing this chapter and continue the healing process.”
The plaintiffs’ properties were either destroyed or badly damaged, and a few of the plaintiffs suffered smoke inhalation-related injuries due to their proximity to the blaze, Dennis previously said.
Two attorneys representing VGU Washington Estates didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. An email sent to the property owner went unanswered. VGU Washington Estates denied wrongdoing in a response filed in court to the original complaint.
The wind-pushed fire spread from a vacant lot, and a fire investigator believed it started from what appeared to be a makeshift fire pit and camp, according to a Lakewood police report that documented the incident.
Debris around the pit included “empty food cans, beer bottles, soda cans, burnt out TV and small trailer,” the report said. “There were also several cigarette butts that were still intact.”
Lakewood Police Department Sgt. Charles Porche told The News Tribune on Friday that nothing in police records indicated anyone had been positively identified or charged for starting the fire.
The lawsuit alleged that VGU Washington Estates didn’t control the land’s vegetation, inspect the property for safety hazards or secure the site, leaving it accessible to people experiencing homelessness who lived there at least part of the time. Property conditions deteriorated over the summer of 2023 and West Pierce Fire & Rescue responded to a small campfire on the site a month prior to the deadly fire, according to Dennis.
Less than a month before the deadly fire, the property’s owner authorized Lakewood police to enter the site and, if necessary, remove trespassers and unauthorized vehicles, according to an agency agreement obtained by The News Tribune in a public records request. Porche said there was no indication police removed any person or vehicle from the site following the agreement, and police also hadn’t received a request to do so, he said.
“Although there are instances when an officer will encounter a person ‘randomly’ after these are signed, most of the action taken is an owner calling police for an issue,” Porche told The News Tribune in an email. “This agreement being in place then allows officers to act immediately regarding trespassing and then take into account whatever issues they were called there for.”
In October 2023, the city of Lakewood cited VGU Washington Estates for failing to maintain the property, according to a city code enforcement document. VGU Washington Estates was required to clear overgrown vegetation and address a reported issue with yellow jackets. The case was closed within three weeks.
A previous code enforcement case was opened against the property in September 2021 for a homeless encampment, city records show. The case was closed in December 2021.
