One missing after huge Everett apartment fire

One person remains missing after fire ripped through a 13-unit apartment building in downtown Everett Thursday night.

Everett Fire Marshal Rick Robinson says investigators don’t know if the man made it out on his own or even if he was home at the time when the fire broke out in the 100-year-old building in the heart of downtown on Hewitt Avenue.

“The fire burned so hot and destroyed so much of the building, I don’t know when we’ll be able to actually get inside,” Robinson says. “We might have to do some structural tear down of the building to make it safe to go inside.”

Robinson says the building had no sprinkler system or alarms. It took firefighters six hours to bring the massive blaze under control, as flames 20-feet tall were seen shooting from the building, touching power lines overhead. Robinson says they cut power as a precaution because lines were falling down near firefighters.

There’s no initial indication of the cause of the fire.

KIRO Radio’s Chris Sullivan contributed to this report