Car slams into garage on Rainier Ave. South, setting it ablaze

SEATTLE -- A car slams into a garage, setting the two on fire.  It happened on Rainier Ave. South near 75th avenue south this afternoon causing a traffic back-up. Fire officials say both the driver and homeowner are lucky the situation wasn’t worse.

“I would say the owner of the car and the occupant of the home should get a lottery ticket; about 24 inches north, and the car would have sailed over the embankment and into the house,” said Seattle Fire Department Battalion Chief Randy Hansen.

There were no reported injuries. Seattle Police Department is still trying to determine what caused the driver to hit the garage.



The homeowner, Rodney Jung, says he put big rocks to prevent cars from hitting his property. Neighbors say this isn’t the first time it’s happened in recent years or even weeks. One neighbor said a car hit their garage last month, in the same spot another car hit it in 2011.

Neighbors said they’ve urged the City of Seattle to address the issue. They’d like to see some sort of speed bumps, speed reduction and more police enforcement.

“We walk our dog here on a daily basis and we are just waiting to get hit,” said one neighbor. “Maybe when there’s a fatality they will do something about it.”

In May, Rainier Valley business owners and neighbors protested to make Rainier Avenue South a safer stretch of road. While residents said some improvements have been made over the years; they say they aren’t enough.