Fire destroys dock, burns boats on Lake Union

Dark smoke continued to billow off south Lake Union this morning as Seattle firefighters battled a stubborn blaze that consumed a wooden pier and damaged three boats at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) facility on Fairview Avenue East.

Forty people were evacuated from houseboats just north of the fire scene and Eastlake Avenue East was closed from Fairview Avenue to the University Bridge until about 10 a.m., said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick.

"It was dark and the smoke was so thick, it obscured everything," creating conditions that initially made it tough to determine the extent of the fire's damage, she said.

"The fire is still burning under the pier and the access is obviously difficult," Fitzpatrick said while overlooking a charred metal building that sits atop the smoldering timbers around 8 a.m. The fire, she said, quickly raced north underneath the old pier, fueled by flammable creosote. But firefighters were able to prevent the blaze from spreading to the nearby houseboats, though "some residents left on their own because of the smoke," she said.

The four-alarm blaze started at the end of a long wooden pier that juts into the lake just before 1:30 a.m. The first firefighters on the scene tried to douse the flames at the west end of the pier but were forced back as the wind blew the fire towards the lake's eastern shore, Fitzpatrick said. Eight Seattle police harbor patrol boats responded and began putting water on the flames from the water-side, even as firefighters continued to battle the blaze from shore.

The Alki fireboat came from Fisherman's Terminal and arrived at 1:52 a.m. An off-duty crew had to be called in to man the Chief Seattle fireboat, which had to go through the Ballard locks, arriving at the fire about 5 a.m. A Coast Guard cutter also responded but it's not known when it arrived.

Five firefighters were taken to Harborview Medical Center with minor injuries, Fitzpatrick said. One firefighter suffered chest pains, one injured a knee and another complained of a thumb injury; Fitzpatrick couldn't say how the other two were hurt.

Over 100 Seattle firefighters fought the fire, along with firefighters from Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and Woodinville, she said.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known and Fitzpatrick said fire investigators won't likely start their investigation until tomorrow. A damage estimate was not immediately available.

The old pier is part of NOAA's Pacific Marine Operations Center on the lake, which is linked to Puget Sound by the Lake Washington Ship Canal. The fire occurred before NOAA offices opened for the day and Fitzpatrick said employees were being told not to come into work.

According to a NOAA Web site, five ships are based at the center, including the 231-foot hydrographic survey vessels Rainier and Fairweather, and five others that are based elsewhere rely on the center for support services.

The fire started more than two hours after the annual Fourth of July fireworks show over Lake Union.

"The whole neighborhood was crazy last night" as people flocked to lake to see the fireworks display, said Bill Stolz, a member of the Coast Guard reserve who lives nearby.

A few people were lighting their own fireworks after the city display, he said, and questioned whether something "might have gone astray."

"Luckily, there isn't more oil in the water or a bunch of fuel tanks" that could explode, Stolz said. The damage, he said, "definitely could've been worse."

Portions of this report were provided by The Associated Press