More than 20 abandoned mobile homes burn in Spanaway, shut down state Route 7

A fire that spread to more than 20 abandoned mobile homes Monday in Spanaway shut down state Route 7 for several hours.

Crews responded about 3:30 p.m. to the fire near 208th Street East and state Route 7, also known as Mountain Highway East. One mobile home was burning when they arrived, but wind and the close proximity of the units quickly caused the blaze to spread, Central Pierce Fire & Rescue spokesman Ed Hrivnak said.

“I refer to it as a mobile home graveyard,” he said. “It’s where mobile homes go to die.”

He said dozens of the homes are stacked together waiting to be scrapped, and that the 20 some units that burned account for maybe one-fifth of the property.

The News Tribune was not able to identify the owner of the lot Monday.

No one was hurt in the fire.

Crews shut down Mountain Highway East because the only fire hydrants nearby are across the road from the lot, and firefighters had to stretch water lines across the street. They expected to reopen the highway before 10 p.m.

As of about 5:30 p.m. firefighters had the blaze under control, but still had to find and put out spot fires throughout the units.

Crews have extinguished fires at the property before but were always able to contain them to individual mobile homes until Monday, Hrivnak said. They‘ve been worried for some time that a bigger fire could happen, he said.

“They’re packed in so tight, there’s no real effective way for us to fight the fire,” Hrivnak said. “There’s no really good access point.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 8:06 PM with the headline "More than 20 abandoned mobile homes burn in Spanaway, shut down state Route 7."