Eight Stores Destroyed In $3 Million Gig Harbor Fire -- Blaze Started In Coffee Roaster, Spread Through Shopping Center

GIG HARBOR, Pierce County - Fresh ash dotted the face and white shirt of Mikeal Treadwell as he watched smoke billow from his Harbor Jewelers store and other shops in the Olympic Village shopping center.

He was approached by Amy Germaine, who hours earlier had dropped off a gold and amethyst ring for sizing. She wanted to know whether the ring, a gift from her mother, was OK.

"I'm sure it's OK, but the promise date - forget it," Treadwell told her.

The jewelry-shop owner considered himself luckier than others in the shopping center, where yesterday a fire destroyed eight businesses, severely damaged a ninth and caused more than $3 million in damage. There were no injuries.

The fire began at 11:30 a.m. in the coffee-bean roaster at the Austin Chase Coffee Shop. Store owner Charles Herrick said he noticed flames in the chafe, where the coffee-bean skins are collected.

He used a fire extinguisher to put out those flames and instructed a co-worker to call 911. By the time firefighters arrived, smoke was coming out the roof, but no flames were visible. Firefighters cut a trench in the roof a few stores over so they could get water on the flames, said Penny Hulse, spokeswoman for Pierce County Fire Department's District No. 5.

The center was evacuated, but by the time firefighters arrived the fire had spread throughout the venting system and attic.

"As soon as we cut the trench, air got to it, and it took off," Hulse said.

Gig Harbor Fire Chief Steve Nixon said his department simply had to step back and wait for firefighters from other districts while the blaze spread. He said they underestimated the blaze because it initially was hidden in the venting system.

The building did not have a sprinkler system because the city's building code doesn't require one for one-story buildings, said Hulse.

"Sprinklers would have helped us out immensely," said Nixon.

In addition to Harbor Jewelers and Austin Chase, the fire destroyed TGF Cutters, a hair salon; a Baskin-Robbins ice-cream shop; Toshi's Teriyaki; Mail Plus and the Good News Christian Book Store, Hulse said. Heartland Nutrition was also destroyed and Little Professor Books was severely damaged.

Hundreds of people gathered in the parking lot amid smoke and ashes. They saw the facing of three buildings peel away and crash to the ground 90 minutes after the fire began.

Traffic along Highway 16 was backed up, and smoke could be seen for miles as more than 50 firefighters from Gig Harbor, several Pierce County districts and Tacoma worked for an an hour and 50 minutes almost two hours to put out the blaze.