EVERETT — A massive three-alarm warehouse fire was still burning Sunday along the waterfront, generating heavy smoke. No injuries had been reported as firefighters continued their work from the previous night.
Firefighters expected to be on the scene all of Sunday.
The fire apparently started just before 7 p.m. Saturday at a recycling business along Marine View Drive and spread toward Everett Engineering. By 9:30 p.m., crews still were working to protect Everett Engineering. Flames earlier were shooting across a small walkway between the two businesses, and hot spots remained a concern.
Two walls collapsed at the recycling business and the roof was collapsing from the fire’s intensity, Everett Fire Marshal Eric Hicks said.
No one is thought to have been inside. It was too early to know how the fire started, Hicks said. Wood pallets and other recycling materials were inside the building.
Smoke from the fire could be seen for miles.
Stephen Mutch, 26, of Duvall, was westbound on the U.S. 2 trestle when he saw the smoke. At first, he was worried his workplace in another part of north Everett was burning. He went to the scene and could feel the heat on his face from the roadside, he said. He watched a warehouse burn.
By then, the fire appeared to be traveling up a hillside and into the brush, he said.
“The flames were out of control,” he said. The fire trucks “had to back away because the blaze was just too much. They would have been engulfed probably had they not. I couldn’t imagine how hot it was for the firefighters.”
He estimated that the flames were 50 feet high at times.
Mutch sent pictures of the fire to his friend Randy Bolerjack, of Mill Creek. The coworkers were supposed to meet at the Everett Reign women’s football game. Both canceled that plan.
Bolerjack instead watched the plume of smoke from his parents’ home in Everett, sharing his friend’s pictures on social media.
At the peak of the response, about 90 firefighters were at the scene from throughout Snohomish County, including Lynnwood, Marysville and Monroe.
Special fire trucks that carry huge loads of water were ferrying it to the site from other parts of the county. The fire put “a huge demand on the water system,” Hicks said.
The 7-acre industrial lot where the fire started was the location of a business that was shut down by authorities more than a year ago over health and safety concerns. The lot belongs to a limited liability company that had rented to the recycling company, according to property records. It was not immediately clear Saturday if the site was in operation.
Everett Engineering is a machine and fabrication business that has been in the city for more than 40 years, according to its website.
Herald reporter Sharon Salyer contributed to this story.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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