Fire destroys old building

7:30am yesterday

Yesterday was a weird day. It started when I got a call at 6:15am from my coffee shop friend John that maybe I would be better off driving instead of taking the bus downtown, since there was a big fire right across the street from Avellino's. The old Hohl Feed & Seed building was aflame, with the street blocked off and lots of water running down the entire street. Apparently it also flooded the Bellingham bus terminal, because it was dark and the buses seemed delayed as well. I later learned that the power had been turned off because of the flooding.

After having found a place to get coffee, around 8:00am I walked by the scene and headed to the YMCA where I was getting ready to work out. Other than the lack of traffic lights, everything seemed fine there. But while I was riding the stationary bike at the Y, I began to see dark smoke coming up from the building, where I thought the fire was out. And then I saw this:

Flames!

The fire had flared up again, and soon there were lots of us looking out the window and wondering if it had jumped to another building. But it turns out that the fire was not completely out of the old building, built in 1901. And even after this was put out, it happened once again.

Aftermath

After my workout, when I walked back to where I parked my car, I saw that the original fire trucks had been joined by more, and if you look carefully here, you can see a stream of water directed right into the building from firemen on the ladder.

No one knows at this time how it started, but there were more than 75 animals saved and transported to the local Whatcom Humane Society. Laura Clark, the executive director, reported to the Bellingham Herald this good news:

"WHS animal control officers arrived on scene and loaded several cages and aquariums filled with animals and immediately transported them back to the Whatcom Humane Society, where our animal care staff was waiting to provide care,” she said.

A few birds succumbed to the smoke, and a large python is missing. Otherwise, all the animals were saved. This morning, other than the demolished building and a few barriers, everything seems to be back to normal. No more flames, thank heavens.
:-)