Fire burns Olympia hotel early Friday, displacing homeless guests
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected regarding who was staying at the hotel.
A stubborn fire that started about midnight was still burning at the Quality Inn hotel in Olympia Friday morning, Olympia Fire Department says. The department estimates the building will be a total loss.
Firefighters arrived at the hotel on the 1200 block of Quince Street Southeast, near Interstate 5, to find a shrub burning, Assistant Chief of Operations Mike Buchanan told The Olympian. Firefighters quickly extinguished that blaze, but it had spread up the building’s siding and into its attic, he said.
Crews began fighting the fire from inside the building but ran into materials that made it difficult to access the fire, Buchanan said. About 45 minutes into the firefight, it wasn’t safe to operate inside, so crews and hotel guests evacuated and the department switched strategies, beginning to fight the fire from outside the building.
“Basically, the fire moved faster than we could,” Buchanan said.
Crews were still on the scene Friday morning, engaged in a “dance” of sorts, Buchanan said. The roof would shield water from reaching the fire in the attic, until it finally weakened the roof structure, pouring water onto the fire.
The blaze displaced about 80 people staying at the hotel, Buchanan said.
Members of about 15 homeless families accounted for approximately 50 of the evacuated guests, according to Trish Gregory, executive director of the Family Support Center of South Sound. The families had been staying at the Family Support Center’s Pear Blossom Place family shelter, Gregory said, and were relocated to the nearby hotel to allow for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Intercity Transit buses temporarily housed evacuees at the scene, according to OFD, until the American Red Cross and the hotel worked to find the guests new accommodations at the Red Lion Inn & Suites Governor Hotel.
No injuries were reported.
On Friday, Gregory said the Family Support Center was working on a long-term plan for the families who were displaced, but that the Governor Hotel was booked for them through early next week.
The families weren’t able to go back into the hotel to get their belongings after evacuating, Gregory said.
The Family Support Center is accepting contributions of gift cards, cash, and hygiene supplies such as diapers and baby wipes at its 3545 Seventh Ave. SW office Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The day of the fire, Friday, May 22, donations will be accepted until 5 p.m.
Gregory said people who want to help also can reach out to the organization via email at info@fscss.org.
In addition to OFD, Lacey, Tumwater, East Olympia, South Bay, and McLane Black Lake fire departments all responded to the hotel fire.
The cause of the initial shrub fire was unknown Friday. In a news release, OFD said a second building on the property was able to be saved.
A spokesperson for the city of Olympia originally told The Olympian the homeless individuals staying at the hotel had been moved there from the city-run mitigation site downtown because they were at higher risk for severe complications from COVID-19 due to age or underlying health conditions.
However, spokesperson Kellie Purce Braseth later corrected the information, saying the city put up 13 individuals from the mitigation site at the hotel early in the pandemic, but that those individuals had moved to an emergency overflow shelter at 2828 Martin Way E. in March.
Purce Braseth apologized for the misinformation, saying “things have been moving fast” during the pandemic. In any case, she said, the fire represents “a devastating loss to the community.”
Will Rubin contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 22, 2020 at 7:48 AM.
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