North Bend facility designated quarantine site for travelers exposed to coronavirus

Travelers coming from China to the Seattle area might find themselves quarantined in North Bend.

A fire training academy, located just off of I-90, is the state's designated a quarantine site for people who might have been exposed to the coronavirus.

The Fire Training Academy’s dormitory is deep in the woods and isolated from the general public. This will be their home for 14 days.

Michael Lant, the academy’s chief of instruction, shows one of the 20 bedrooms that are available. “You’ve got two beds, and you’ve got two ... wardrobes, like wooden lockers. Each one has a desk, a chair, a night stand, and a garbage can.”

The Washington State Patrol operates the facility. Spokesperson Chris Loftis said the quarantine is for people who've traveled to China and may have been exposed to the coronavirus, but do not show symptoms. Home quarantine is preferred, but sometimes that’s not possible.

“This may not be your end destination," Loftis said. "There may not be a place for you to home quarantine for two weeks so we needed to provide the traveler a place to quarantine. So this is the place for that traveler who is not based in the Seattle area and has nowhere to go but has to be quarantined.”

From here, health workers will monitor their symptoms and transport them to a hospital if needed.

Health officials said the volume of people traveling from Hubei Province — the origin of the coronavirus outbreak — to Sea-Tac Airport is low at this time and the facility may not be used at all.