eclecticism

Sirens.

More sirens.

Wow, that’s a lot of sirens. Maybe I should take a look…

And with those thoughts to wake me up at 7:45am today, I found out that the Jensonia hotel, right next door to my apartment building just off of 8th and Seneca, was on fire. Again.

This time was much bigger than the last one I saw, though — tons of trucks, police, and firefighters all over the place. Streets have been blocked off for a few blocks around, from at least Spring to Pike on 8th, and from 9th to 7th on Seneca. Multiple ambulances, a few tanker trucks, and two ladder trucks with their ladders out and extended to the roof of the building.

When I hopped out onto my fire escape to keep an eye on things, there was smoke billowing out the windows of the top floor. I could see one man on the roof of the building, and two pairs of feet sticking out of a window on the top floor, waiting as the firefighters maneuvered the ladder of the first ladder truck into place. They were brought down safely and ushered to an ambulance, and the guy trapped on the roof was brought down just a moment thereafter.

The firefighters have been working on the fire since then. It looked to me like it was mostly contained about half an hour ago (8:45am) — at the very least, the activity level dropped off a bit, and smoke stopped coming out of the building — but as of now (9:20am), all the trucks are still there, the ladders are still extended to the roof, and there are still a lot of emergency workers milling around in the street. My guess is that the main blaze is out, and now they’re just dealing with the cleanup work.

I’m really starting to wonder just how much longer the Jensonia is going to be habitable. There was the fire I saw in January, apparently there was one I missed last week, and now this one. How many fires can one building sustain before it’s out-and-out condemned?

Here’s the two reports I’ve found on today’s incident so far:

From KIRO (courtesy of Ermac in my LJ Seattle Community thread): 9 Hurt In 3-Alarm Fire Near Downtown Seattle

Nine injuries are reported from a 3-alarm fire near downtown Seattle.

Five women and four men were treated for minor smoke inhalation and eight were taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, fire department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News. The fire was reported at 7:45 a.m. at the 7-story Jensonia Hotel, a 1920s vintage residential hotel on 8th Ave. at Seneca in the First Hill area near downtown. When firefighters arrived, flames were coming out a sixth-floor window. The fire was under control by 8:41 a.m. More than 80 firefighters in five engines, five ladder trucks and medic units and other cars converged on the scene.

And from KING5: Nine injured in downtown Seattle apartment building fire

Witnesses said some residents were clinging to windows trying to get out of the building.

“It looked like they kept hanging out further and further,” said Heather Young, resident. “Everyone down at the bottom was screaming ‘don’t jump, don’t jump’ because the smoke was just billowing out behind them just really, really thick. People were worried they couldn’t breathe.” Firefighters used ladders to evacuate some residents since smoke filled many of the stairwells, preventing many elderly residents from leaving the building. Shots from Sky KING showed several firefighters attacking the blaze, which reportedly started on the sixth and seventh floors, from the roof of the building. Firefighters doused water and flame retardent on the blaze and contained the fire by 8:30 a.m.

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p>I’ve uploaded a gallery of sixty-three images I took this morning, mostly from the fire escape out my window. Enjoy!

iTunes: “Fire” by Hendrix, Jimi from the album Radio One (1967, 2:43).

[See also: Fire! | Sounds like it’s closed | Goodbye (and Good Riddance) Alfaretta! | Fire next door! | Fame ]

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