Downtown Astoria fire kills person, guts five businesses

Published 6:00 pm Friday, November 28, 2008

ASTORIA – A three-alarm fire killed one person and wiped out half a downtown city block Thanksgiving night.

A large turnout of firefighters fought the three-alarm blaze, and the Astoria fire chief’s decision to call for extra help right away may have saved other buildings.

The fire cast a cloud over downtown merchants’ long-awaited after-Thanksgiving kick-off to the Christmas shopping season. Traffic was disrupted and parking limited because fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were still on the scene Friday afternoon.

The fire started some time after 10:30 p.m. in the shuttered flower shop at 915 Commercial St. and caused one fatality as it quickly spread throughout the building. It took out five businesses, including Tokyo Teriyaki, Bank of America, Caby’s, Raven’s Studio, and the former Astoria Florist. The identity of the person who died is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

A common attic connecting all five storefronts apparently allowed the fire to spread.

The windows of the former flower shop were black and hot, and smoke was coming up from the building when Astoria Fire and Rescue crews arrived on the scene at 10:48 p.m. Thursday. Officers immediately called for a “two alarm.”

“When we first got here it was heavily involved in the florist shop,” said Astoria Fire Chief Lenard Hansen. “It had been building up for a significant amount of time.”

Scott Docherty, owner of a nearby gallery, saw the blaze heat up around 11 p.m. after the fire engines pulled up.

“I stepped outside and saw the smoke,” he said. “At the time, it didn’t look like much, just smoke coming up from the back of the building. Within an hour, that entire section was engulfed in flames. It was pretty dramatic.”

The fire was upgraded to a “third alarm” at 11:31 p.m.

Olney-Walluski, Lewis and Clark, Warrenton, Knappa, Gearhart and Seaside fire departments provided assistance.