A brush fire at Fort Steilacoom Park was elevated to a three alarm fire around 2 pm on August 16 according to West Pierce Fire & Rescue’s Twitter/X account.
King 5’s helicopter over head shots can be seen here.
The City of Lakewood’s Twitter/X account has the following information (as of 2:31 pm, August 16, 2023).
If you are in the following areas around Fort Steilacoom Park, please evacuate. @WestPierce crews are responded to a fire at Fort Steilacoom Park near @PierceColleg.
98th Street SW: If you are on 98th Street east of Farwest Drive: Evacuate
100th Ave SW: If you are between 98th Street and 99th Street: Evacuate
99th Street: If you are East of Farwest Drive between there and Fort Steilacoom Park: Evacuate
100th Street CT: If you are between Farwest and Fort Steilacoom Park: Evacuate
100th Ave: If you are north of 101st Street (also known as Lake Louise Drive): Evacuate
100th Street: If you are off 100th Ave: Evacuate
Evacuations are not required, but highly encouraged at this time. Please use Farwest Drive in either direction to evacuate.
We each received an unidentified phone call at the same time and did not answer due to too many robocalls. We thought it suspicious that it was the same phone number at the same time. Later, when I listened to voice mail, I heard the Alert.
Even though we are close enough to be concerned, we saw no smoke. We get Amber and Silver Alerts as well as notifications from Pierce College. I will identify the phone number on my cell but this warning was inadequate for us.
Very confident in our Fire Department and appreciate the work they do. They recently responded to a neighbor’s complaint about burning brush after clearing on our street. Steilacoom residents need to get rid of burn barrels and stop burning brush. 🔥 Don’t have even a small campfire in dry grass please. Our lives may depend on it.