SEATTLE — A building fire in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood shut down two blocks of traffic on First Avenue Monday morning.
Seattle fire said that just after 6:30 a.m., a fire was reported in a building off Cherry Street and First Avenue.
Seattle Fire Department spokesperson Kristin Tinsley said the fire started on the second floor of the building above a 7-Eleven store. There was concern over two apartment units on the third floor.
The smoke caught the attention of neighbors.
“The smoke I saw on James and Third, it was pretty bad and I thought it was a car fire, but when I got here I saw flames coming out the back,” said Jason Ladendorf, who lives nearby.
Ali Ghambari owns Cherry Street Coffee across the street. His kitchen is in the building next to the one that caught fire. He said he was inside when the fire started.
“All of a sudden, I smell something and I see the light flickering and then I say, ‘What is this,’ so I turned the lights off to see if it’s something in the light bulb. Then I come out, I smell smoke, and then my manager (comes) from this side and says, ‘We got smoke in 7-Eleven.’ I came out and I see the fire is coming out of the back of the building,” said Ghambari.
“When fire fighters arrived on scene there was smoke showing from the second floor on the back side of the building, that had extended into floor three as well,” said Tinsley.
Tinsley said the second floor is used for storage and no one was in the two apartment units above.
“There were access issues to get into the structure. Firefighters had to enter the top floor via a fire escape on the back side,” said Tinsley.
The good news is that no one was injured. Investigators are working to determine what caused the fire.