Sixty Firefighters Battle Smoky Blaze in Totem Lake Area; No One Injured

Sixty firefighters from five departments fought a smoky, two-alarm blaze in a business complex at the Par-Mac Industrial area of Kirkland Tuesday afternoon, taking 45 minutes to gain control of the fire. No one was injured.

The fire was reported at 1:46 p.m., said Mike Dettmer, a Kirkland Fire Department battalion chief at the scene. The fire broke out in a business at a five-unit industrial complex at 11110 117th Place N.E., near the Totem Lake area.

Firefighters arrived on the scene within five minutes and found heavy smoke and flames, Dettmer said. “So we turned this into a two-alarm fire.”

Twenty-one units from the Kirkland, Redmond, Woodinville, Shoreline and Northshore  fire departments responded. Dettmer said firefighters fought the fire through a heavy, low-hanging smoke.

No one was at the business where the fire broke out, and no firefighters were hurt.

“The fire was in an industrial bay, kind of a heavy storage area,” Dettmer said. “The cause is under investigation. We probably won’t know what started it until tonight.”

Other businesses in the complex were damaged as well.

“The damage was pretty considerable,” Dettmer said. “It really destroyed not just that business, but there was smoke and fire damage to other businesses as well.”

Crews from Puget Sound Energy were on the scene as well, and nearby residents said they lost power at about 3 p.m., more than an hour after the fire was reported.

“We heard something blow,” said one resident, who declined to provide her name. “It was just a pop.”