Massive fire destroys commercial building in downtown Kent

KENT, Wash. — Crews battled a fire at a large commercial building in downtown Kent early Friday.

The empty building on First Avenue North and Smith Street is right next to the Kent Station. The massive response from fire crews caused some train and bus routes to be canceled or delayed.

Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Chief Pat Pawlak said when crews arrived just after 4 a.m., flames were seen on the roof of the building.

Firefighters took a defensive approach to isolate and stabilize the fire to keep it from spreading.

It’s unclear what started the fire, but firefighters said there were major concerns about surrounding infrastructure — not only with Kent Station being next to the building, but with power lines being over the building.

“It is a very old building, that’s one of the concerns. We also had overhead power lines that we were concerned about,” said Pawlak.

Firefighters were able to remove the lines.

Crews from Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority, as well as firefighters from Renton, Tukwila and Skyway, responded to the two-alarm fire.

No injuries were reported.

Smith Street was closed, as well as the railroad tracks for the Sounder train. Both have since reopened.

There were cancellations and delays for some Sounder S line trains as well as for Sound Transit express bus routes, but service has since been restored.

No injuries were reported.

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Fire at commercial building in downtown Kent (Twitter: @ZONE3pios)

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