EDMONDS – Charred ruins continued to smolder as they were knocked down Sunday.
The facade of the burned building stood precariously over Fifth Avenue, which is why officials called in a giant steam shovel to knock it down into the building’s center as onlookers stood and watched.
The 90,000 square-foot retail-condominium project, under construction for months, burned nearly to the ground in a fire that was reported at 3:15 a.m. Saturday.
The instability of the building is also why Fifth Avenue was blocked off between Walnut and Holly streets, and a reason why fire investigators have yet to venture in to try to determine a cause, officials said.
“The scene is still too hot for the origin-and-cause investigation to begin,” Julianne Marshall of the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a written statement Sunday.
Beginning today, a team from the federal agency will begin to hunt for clues to how the fire started. The agency was called because of recent fires at construction sites elsewhere in the state, Edmonds police Sgt. Jeff Jones said. Some of those fires were the work of arsonists.
Fifth Avenue could be blocked off until the building is completely knocked down, which is expected to take until about Thursday, police said.
No one was injured in the blaze. Residents of nearby buildings were evacuated for one night, and the city of Edmonds put up 20 of them at the nearby Harbor Inn on Saturday night, said Mayor Gary Haakenson, who was at the scene Sunday in a hard hat.
Haakenson praised firefighters for protecting the adjacent buildings from damage.
“The firefighters did an absolutely amazing job,” Haakenson said. “There’s not even a black mark on any of the walls.”
Haakenson said he reached Bob Gregg, the building’s developer, at 5 a.m. Saturday as Gregg was about to board a plane for Belize. Gregg chose to continue with his trip, the mayor said.
All but four of the 28 units in the building, named The Gregory, had been sold.
Some residents protested the project because of its height and bulk. Onlookers on Sunday expressed sympathy for the construction workers and those who had bought units, but most shed no tears over the building itself.
“It’s been such a sore spot; nobody likes it,” said neighborhood resident Shirley Miller.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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