A two alarm blaze erupted in a home at 5603 42nd SW on Friday as an eviction notice was being served on a 52 year old resident. A man's body was found in the home once firefigthers were able to enter According to neighbors the man was something of a recluse and they said no lights were seen inside the home even during the evening. Outside there were several derelict vehicles.

An eviction of the resident was being served and in that process a fire broke out.

Detectives had been attempting to make contact with the man since early January 2018 when the State appointed executor of the home filed for and had an eviction notice signed by a King County Superior Court Judge.  In that time, Detectives had sent multiple letters to the man at the address, attempted to find a phone number (only to learn he did not have one), left business cards on the door at the house, spoke with neighbors, and even did surveillance, all in an attempt to just make contact with the man and make him aware of the eviction process.  The man never made any contact with Detectives, returned any of the letters, and neighbors reported that they had not seen him since December.

The Press Information Officer for the King County Sheriff’s office Sgt. Jason Houck said deputies and a SWAT team were there to assist the eviction which is not an uncommon practice in what are known to be difficult evictions.

Through their attempts to get into contact with the man, Detectives learned that he had 20+ guns of various caliber registered to him.  They also learned that he possibly suffered from some sort of mental illness.  Because of all of these factors, Detectives went to the location with Tac-30, members of the HNT, and a mental health professional (MHP), all in an effort to get a peaceful resolution.

Once at the residence, members of Tac-30 surrounded the house, knocked on doors and windows to try and establish communications with the man.  In addition, a Hostage Negotiator, along with a MHP, attempted to establish communication with the man by calling him by name and address over a loud speaker in an armored car outside the front of the house.  These attempts went on for approximately 20 minutes with no response from the man.

After all the other attempts failed to establish contact with the man, Tac-30 members were forced to break a locked, glass door on a porch at the front of the house in an attempt to get to the actual front door and knock on it.  As they broke the glass, they observed a large fire inside the home.

Other than a steel claw used to break the glass door at the front of the house, no foreign objects were introduced into the house prior to the fire.

The identification of the deceased man as well as the cause of death will be made by the King County Medical Examiner at a later time.

The King County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes will be conducting the Death Investigation with the assistance of the King County Sheriff Major Accident Response Reconstruction Team  (MARR) and the Seattle Fire Department’s Fire Investigator.

No law enforcement or fire personnel were injured during this incident.

Earlier eviction notices on the resident had been ignored Houck said the man had two dozen firearms registered in his name

A power outage was caused by the fire putting C & P Coffeehouse and others out of commission for a time.

According to the Seattle Times the homeowner, "who recently died, had been trying to evict her son from the house since last year, according to court documents. In documents filed in King County Superior Court in January, attorneys for her estate say a Lewis County probate court in March 2017 ordered the son to vacate the house.

On Nov. 10, a notice of termination and demand for possession of the home were delivered to the son, and he was ordered to leave by the end of December, court documents show. Court documents say the son never paid any rent and did not contribute to the mortgage."