Crews fight warehouse fire in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District

SEATTLE — Power was cut to thousands and those who live and work in the area were told to shut their doors and windows during a fire in a vacant building in the Chinatown-International District.

The Seattle Fire Department said the first 911 calls about the flames at Tenth Avenue South and South King Street came in at 6:36 a.m. Thursday.

The building used to house a produce store.

Crews arrived to find heavy smoke and flames coming through the roof of the building. Firefighters battled the flames from outside the building because of worries that the roof could collapse.

Neighbor Ruben Misquez called 911 when he spotted the flames.

“Then I see an orange glow coming from the glass. So then I just look at the building and there’s just bigger and bigger smoke coming. And I just called 911 right away,” said Misquez.

At 6:45 a.m., the fire was upgraded to two alarms to bring more crews to the scene to keep a nearby building from catching fire.

“This is the biggest fire I’ve ever seen in my life,” said neighbor Kanisha Draper.

Firefighters searched the adjacent building to make sure no one was inside and that the fire had not spread.

Electricity was shut off in the 1000 block of South King Street as a precaution.

The fire was under control by 9:15 a.m., but it was not out.

Not only did the roof collapse during the fire, creating even more debris for investigators, but with so much material burning inside the former produce store, Seattle firefighters expected to be at the building throughout the day.

No one was hurt and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

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