Seattle Fire Department fights 2-alarm blaze in Lake City

The Seattle Fire Department (SFD) was called to Seattle’s Lake City neighborhood Wednesday morning to fight a two-alarm fire at a vacant building.

Reports of a fire at NE 135th Street and Lake City Way NE came in just before 4:45 a.m. Wednesday. Firefighters responded to find heavy smoke and flames coming from the building.

Seattle expands protections to firefighters, first responders

Around 5:11 a.m., Seattle Fire said it had escalated its response to a two-alarm fire in order to get additional resources.

Crews fought the fire at a distance from the building because the floors inside were thought to be unstable.

The fire happened at an unoccupied residential building no one had lived in for years, an SFD spokesperson said.

By around 6 a.m., the fire was under control, but crews will remain at the scene to watch for possible flare-ups.

Three ladder trucks, five fire trucks, and about 50 firefighters responded to the scene to help extinguish the flames.

Both directions of Lake City Way are closed between NE 137th and NE 135th streets.

No injuries have been reported yet, but firefighters could not immediately search the building because of high heat and smoke.

SFD has asked local area business owners to call 911 if they see anything suspicious and said people should secure doors and garbage bins as a precaution. Crews have reportedly been called to fires at the building before, but never for one this large.

KIRO 7 contributed to this report