Fire call at Cal-Mor Circle in Morgan Junction

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(photo by Christopher Boffoli)
ORIGINAL REPORT: Cal-Mor is the cylindrical building on California just north of Fauntleroy. First engine there said “nothing visible”; now they’re investigating inside the building. 8:27 PM UPDATE: WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli is there and says California is closed at the scene. 8:34 PM UPDATE: We’re arriving at the scene and it appears California is open southbound, blocked northbound next to Cal-Mor; the California/Fauntleroy intersection is flowing OK. 8:43 PM UPDATE: Both sides of California OK now, but emergency vehicles curbside so still a little bit slow going. Just talked to the incident commander on the scene, Bill Zander; he tells us that it was a case of burned “food on the stove” — only damage from the door that had to be broken down so fire crews could get in, because the tenant apparently resisted requests to open the door. The incident commander says the tenant was having a bit of respiratory trouble from the smoke, got treated with oxygen, but chose to return to his apartment rather than being taken to the hospital for a precautionary checkout.

J October 8, 2008 (8:01 am)

All of that for burned food? Crazy! I guess it’s good to know that we have a great emergency response here in West Seattle!! There were 15 fire vehicles, police and even a metro van with flashing lights… it was quite a sight to see that many vehicles, the strobe lights from the fire alarms go off in a lot of the rooms, and people standing in their windows of that building looking down at all the activity.

Eli October 8, 2008 (10:18 am)

It was pretty interesting to watch. :) But the thing that amazed me were the idiots bound and determined to continue north on California despite the fact that the street was blocked by emergency vehicles.

WSB October 8, 2008 (11:07 am)

J – when there’s a “Fire in building” call there’s really no choice but to send out the entire cavalry until they are sure that there’s nothing major going on – especially for a building that size – but even a “fire in single family residence” call gets a huge callout for starters – easier to send everyone and then start canceling, than to send one to check it out and then realize lives are in danger.

miws October 8, 2008 (1:35 pm)

There’s been a long standing rule with SFD, that they have to send out, I believe at least years ago it was a minimum of three engines, including ladder truck to the downtown skyscrapers, even if they might be very sure it was just an alarm malfunction.
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The reason? “Modern” skyscrpers of around the last 50 years don’t have the fire escapes the older buildings have.

Mike

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