Olympia Fire Department extinguishes blaze in train tunnel Sunday morning

A fire that started Sunday morning in the train tunnel that runs underneath Capitol Way in downtown Olympia led to the partial evacuation of the Governor Hotel, according to the Olympia Fire Department.

About 8:30 a.m. Sunday, fire crews were dispatched to downtown after a report of smoke in the area. The smoke was traced to the train tunnel underneath Capitol Way, which is actually home to two tunnels, Battalion Chief J.D. Young said Sunday.

There’s the train tunnel, he said, plus a utilities tunnel. The homeless are known to sleep in the utilities tunnel and burn small fires to stay warm, he said.

“No one was there when we got there,” Young said about the fire.

But the fire created a lot of smoke, including a column of smoke that rose alongside the Governor Hotel, he said. That led to the precautionary step of evacuating an unknown number of people from the building. No injuries were reported.

The train tunnel runs from Capitol Way to Seventh Avenue and Adams Street, Young said.

After the fire was extinguished, smoke continued to filter out both ends of the tunnel, he said.

This story was originally published November 22, 2015 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Olympia Fire Department extinguishes blaze in train tunnel Sunday morning."