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Family renews legal fight over dangerous Gas Works Park structures after teen’s death
The family of Mattheis Johnson, 15, has filed a new lawsuit accusing Seattle of years of inaction on hazards at Gas Works Park. The suit says safety work began too late to prevent his fatal fall in July 2025.
The family of Mattheis Johnson, a 15-year-old who fell from a structure at Seattle’s Gas Works Park in July 2025, has filed a new lawsuit accusing the city of failing for years to address dangerous conditions at the landmark park.
Filed Oct. 14 in King County Superior Court, the suit says disputes among city departments delayed action on structures that visitors could climb. Johnson, a Ballard High School student, fell about 50 feet on July 10, 2025, after climbing the old coal-processing towers to watch a concert with a friend, the lawsuit says.
Johnson’s parents and brother had brought a nuisance lawsuit after his death, then dropped it in May 2026 as the city began removing parts of the aging structures. The family’s new filing argues that the emergency work came nine months too late.
Seattle Parks and Recreation called for emergency removal of features that could let people access the towers in October 2025. The city’s Landmarks Preservation Board initially rejected proposed changes, saying they could alter the park’s character. In March 2026, the Department of Construction and Inspections issued a hazard correction, and Parks ordered dangerous features removed. Deconstruction began the following month.
The family’s complaint argues that the danger was recognized well before Johnson’s death. In 2015, the city described removing climbable stairs and landings as a “lifesaving measure,” the filing says, but substantial work did not follow. It also alleges that warning signs at the park failed to adequately deter access to hazardous areas.
The suit points to other fatal falls at the park. Lucas Voss-Kernan, 19, died in 2012 after climbing a fuel tank, and Zoe Jelnik, 20, died in September 2022 after falling about 50 feet. The complaint says many serious falls happened at night, between 10 p.m. and 5:30 a.m.
The lawsuit also raises concerns about contamination left from the site’s industrial past. It says Seattle’s current target for addressing pollution along the shoreline, in groundwater and offshore is 2029, with the work expected to cost $80 million.
Gas Works Park, a popular gathering place and venue for events including Seattle’s Fourth of July fireworks, contains remnants of the coal gasification plant that operated there. The renewed case puts the city’s management of the historic structures and the pace of both public-safety repairs and environmental cleanup under scrutiny.