SEATTLE — Seattle Fire Department estimates a blaze at one of Seattle's iconic dive bars caused $450,000 in damage.
A Twitter user tweeted KIRO 7 a photo, showing smoke coming from University District's restaurant and bar, Dante's, around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
>> PHOTOS: Iconic Seattle dive bar severely damaged in electrical fire
An overheated electrical wiring in the basement is the cause of the fire, according to investigators.
Another photo on Twitter showed a large resposne from SFD on Roosevelt Northeast Way.
Dante's tweeted KIRO 7's Michelle Millman saying it's a "very sad day" for the bar.
No injuries have been reported.
Dante’s was a place that serial killer Ted Bundy would frequent in the 1970s. His first known victim, Lynda Ann Healy, who disappeared in February 1974 was reported last seen at Dante's before Bundy later abducted her.
In 2008, an episode of British television show “Conversation With A Serial Killer” debuted and included an actor portraying Bundy. Part of the episode was filmed at the Seattle bar.
The building was constructed in 1924, and Dante's opened in 1966. It was also featured in the book, "Seattle's Best Dive Bars: Drinking & Diving in the Emerald City," written by former Seattle Weekly Managing Editor Mike Seely. The excerpt:
There are people who complain that the University of Washington lacks a consistently good bar within walking distance of campus, and not without reason. But these people have apparently never been to Dante's, which, back when I attended UW, was known as the place to hold someone's 21 run, because the bartenders wouldn't cut the primary celebrant off--even after she hurled. Someone would just clean up the puke, the celebrant would rally, and things would carry on as though the vomit were a mere speed bump on the road to a debauched adulthood. Customers don't really come here to hang out and have a beer; they come here to get hammered. It's hard to imagine a worse bar for a first date, unless your intentions are sleazier than most first dates--like Ted Bundy's obviously were.
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