VANCOUVER, Wash — The Vancouver Fire Department (VFD) began working a two-alarm fire at the former Red Lion Hotel at the Quay in Vancouver.
More than 30 firefighters responded to the building at 100 Columbia Street on the Vancouver Waterfront just before 2:30 p.m. The first arriving crews said a plume of smoke coming from the roof could be seen from miles away.
No injuries were reported and everyone was accounted for, according to a VFD spokesperson.
In a news release, the fire department said an 8' by 10' shed caught fire that housed the old water softening system for the hotel. The fire burned part of the old Red Lion Hotel sign.
A KGW photographer arrived on scene around 3:20 p.m. and said the fire appeared to be mostly put out.
The former hotel building is slated to be torn down soon as part of a project to redevelop the pier underneath it and the surrounding 10-acre waterfront property, which is owned by the Port of Vancouver.
The Terminal 1 project envisions the rebuilt pier as a home for a public marketplace building, similar to Pike Place Market in Seattle. A new hotel called the AC by Marriott is currently under construction on one of the nearby Terminal 1 blocks.
The Red Lion Hotel stopped operating in 2015, although part of the building remained active for several more years as the home for a restaurant called WareHouse '23, according to The Columbian.
On Tuesday afternoon there was a simultaneous, yet unrelated, fire following an explosion in Eastern Oregon at a food service building.
This story will be updated.