There was a fire this afternoon (Sunday, March 14, 2010) in a vacant store front located between Rosita’s Mexican Grill and Mockingbird Books.
15 emergency units were called to 7214 Woodlawn Ave NE at 4:04 p.m.
This address once held Green Lake Dry Cleaners, but is currently vacant.
From My Green Lake tipster Carol (thanks Carol!):
6 fire trucks, 4 fire SUVs and a police car [were at the scene]. They seemed to put it out pretty quickly but there was a lot of black smoke. I did not see an ambulance so I hope that means everyone is okay.
Update, 4:50 p.m.: This may not be a vacant storefront. From tipster scocoa: “Heard this was used as Billings Middle School‘s Computer Lab.”
Update, 6:20 p.m.: From commenter Willow: “That red door on the right side of the building, just next door to the fire, is part of Billings Middle Schools Campus.”
Update, 9:30 a.m., Monday: From commenter WoodlawnMan: “The two occupants are a hard working business and a school.” We haven’t determined the nature of the business yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do.
Update, 5:20 p.m., Monday: We visited the site of the fire today. Read all about it here.
“Rositas workers watching the blaze.”
Copyright scocoa | Used with permission
“Billings Computer Lab Fire.”
Copyright scocoa | Used with permission
“Billings Computer Lab Fire.”
Copyright scocoa | Used with permission
“These guys were trying to bust in”
Copyright scocoa | Used with permission
A picture from Carol:
Fire at 7214 Woodlawn Ave NE
Thank you also to twitter tipster Billy Duss.
Update, 8 p.m.: Some more information from Helen Fitzpatrick of the Public Information Office at the Seattle Fire Department:
When fire fighters arrived, there was heavy smoke and flames coming from a one-story commercial building with adjacent commercial buildings on either side.
Fire fighters were able to keep the fire contained to that one business. No one was in the business at the time, and there were no injuries.
Fire investigators have determined that this was an accidental fire that was caused by an overheated power cord and the damage estimate is $130,000.
Thank goodness no one was hurt.
And thanks to Engine 18 once again. Where would we be if the city had succeeded in shutting down Greenlake's fire station? This would have been a far, far worse situation if Station 16 had not been right around the corner.
That red door on the right side of the building, just next door to the fire, is part of Billings Middle Schools Campus.
Keep us posted if there are any updates …
Please get your facts straight before “reporting.” The two occupants are a hard working business and a school.
Thanks for the feedback, WoodlawnMan.
Our policy in breaking news stories such as this is to share as much information as we have, as soon as we have it. We then continue to dig for more information until we have the entire story, and update the post as we go. I can assure you that we would never leave a breaking news story on the site (that contained non-verified information) longer than the few hours it usually takes to verify the information.
In these cases, we will also always indicate that we are in the process of verifying the information. When the original post went up about this story, we had a short blurb stating the very minimal information we had at the time about the fire (including that the storefront was vacant), as well as a small line of text at the bottom that said that more information would be posted very soon, once we had updates to give.
15 minutes after that post went up, we then provided this update:
Update, 4:50 p.m: This may not be a vacant storefront. From tipster scocoa: “Heard this was used as Billings Middle School’s Computer Lab.”
And, later that evening, this:
Update: From commenter Willow: “That red door on the right side of the building, just next door to the fire, is part of Billings Middle Schools Campus.”
Thank you, WoodlawnMan, for reading – and for writing. Feedback is always appreciated!
And, in the spirit of getting the whole story: we know about the school, but what about the business you mention? If you are able to provide more information, we would be grateful.
Thanks,
Amy Duncan
My Green Lake
It is a family owned computer business. The family lives a block away.
Thank you, Kelly!
— amy
interesting article! thanks for sharing! :)
interesting article! thanks for sharing! :)