KING COUNTY, Wash. — The grim toll of overdose deaths is on the rise once again in King County, leaving misery in its wake.
Now King County says it is doubling down on efforts to save lives.
The rise in overdose deaths started in the last two months of last year. And Seattle/King County Public Health officials say the number of deaths has continued to go up in 2025.
The vast majority of those deaths are blamed on fentanyl.
Brad Finegood leads the overdose prevention work here at Seattle King County Public Health. He has seen overdose deaths rise and fall and now rise again.
The hard numbers for 2025 are not in just yet, but this graphic by the people at Seattle/King County Public Health tells the story.
Overdose deaths dropped 22% for nearly an entire year until the last quarter of last year.
“And then we started to see again, a little bit of an increase,” said Finegood. “We’re still not where we were at the height of 2023. But we have seen a marked increase in the last two quarters of 2024 and that’s sort of remained consistent since then in the early part of 2025.”
That was reflected in what we heard on the streets of Seattle Wednesday.
“Yeah, in the last three days, I’ve had to save three people,” said Steve. “Yes, one person a day. Like today, I saved a woman. Yesterday I saved a man and day before I saved a man.”
Steve says his drug of choice was alcohol. But he, too, could see a difference when it came to fentanyl.
“Well, I noticed what you would call a less potent product which you call ‘boat glue,’” he said. “Yes, and so, with that, then obviously there’d be less deaths.”
Finegood agrees that the fentanyl on the streets is likely more potent now.
So, he says King County is working harder to get the message out that there is medication that can help get people off fentanyl and save their lives.
“So, we’re really trying to get out into the community and inform folks,” said Finegood, “but really give them the tools so that they don’t die and get the help that they need.”
He says the recent deaths are still a long way from the record numbers in 2023. That year,1,300 people died from drug overdoses, more than 1,000 of them because of fentanyl.
KIRO 7 will keep checking the King County Medical Examiner’s report. That’s where we spotted this trend. In fact, there are two fentanyl deaths in the report Wednesday.
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