Fire at Charlestown Cafe

| Charlestown Cafe | West Seattle fires | WS breaking news

En route to Charlestown Cafe on California Ave to check out fire call – details to follow.

UPDATE 5:30 pm: Fire is out – exterior looks relatively undamaged. Firefighters had to ventilate the roof to let smoke out.

UPDATE 5:45 pm: California Avenue has reopened. Neighbors say big flames were shooting from the roof for a while.

Photos from Evan Baumgardner.

KM February 4, 2008 (5:20 pm)

Just walked back from the scene – many emergency vehicles but nothing looked *too* bad from the outside: some firefighters on the roof chainsawing a spot near the kitchen vent area, other firefighters calmly walking out of the building from the back kitchen entrance.

Saw some kitchen staff standing in the parking lot, and many onlookers. Sure hope to hear that no one was injured, and that the damage to the property is minimal!

Scott February 4, 2008 (5:27 pm)

Saw brown smoke coming from the large roof vent just before 5pm and flames coming from that area a couple minutes later (just as sirens approached). Grabbed a shot of the flames and subsequent fire fighters with hose and chainsaw, although I don’t think they used the hose on anything.

Huindekmi February 4, 2008 (5:49 pm)

I suspect arson. Did anyone see any Petco employees in the area shortly beforehand?

(Yeah yeah… bad joke. And it really should be “developers” not “Petco employees”, but developers don’t wear company shirts and nametags. Makes ’em harder to spot.)

Meena February 4, 2008 (9:08 pm)

We heard the following: there was a fire in the kitchen. The deep fryer set a flame and spread thru the kitchen. Could be up to one week before they reopen. (inside source)

JenV February 5, 2008 (7:21 am)

I saw all the firetrucks headed north on California when I was leaving work. Wondered what was going on. As usual, WSB is the only news source for West Seattle. Thanks!