2nd major fire in historic Kennewick building being renovated called suspicious

A two-alarm fire broke out Friday morning in a historic downtown Kennewick building still being renovated after it was gutted by a blaze last year.

Someone had broken into the building under construction but Deputy Chief Michael Heffner stopped short of saying the fire was human caused.

Fire officials are calling the blaze suspicious, and will work with Kennewick police to investigate whether anyone should face charges.

“There were some signs that there were some things in there, but there was no one inside the building when we arrived,” Heffner said. “It was hard to determine if that was debris left from construction or from someone who had illegally accessed the building.”

Firefighters initially got a call about fire on the south side of Kennewick Avenue about 2:15 a.m. Friday. It was soon discovered that the fire was actually on the north side of the road and coming from the Cascade building at 300 Kennewick.

Firefighters arrived to find the partially finished apartments on the top floor burning, Heffner said.

Crews were able to get to the building from an adjacent roof and put out most of the fire. They soon discovered that it had burned a hole in the floor. That forced them to cut into the newly rebuilt roof of the building to get to the remaining fire.

The fire had traveled through some pipes into the insulation.

Firefighters found signs that someone had forced their way into the boarded-up building. Crews found an unsecured door and a portable ladder leading to the second floor.

Kennewick firefighters had help from Pasco and Richland fire departments and Benton County fire districts 1 and 2, as well as Franklin County Fire District 3.

Rebuilding the Cascade building

The blaze is a setback for restoration efforts for the building which was struck by a devastating fire in February 2022.

Originally called the King Building when it was new in 1907, it was home to the King Grocery Company. A new owner gutted it in the 1930s, converting it into a two-story professional/medical building.

It became almost entirely apartments after World War II. In more recent years, the second floor was apartments and the ground floor had businesses, including a gift shop, massage therapist and others.

Then on Feb. 4, 2022, a fire started on the second story and ended up destroying five businesses and forcing eight adults and two children out of their homes.

The fire left little more than the shell of the building standing before a renovation began.

The owner had been focused on the apartments on the second floor, and construction crews had put up drywall and insulation, said Stephanie Button, the Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership’s executive director.

It’s still unclear how much damage the second fire did to the second floor, but Button said it was not nearly as devastating as the 2022 fire.

And she is hopeful the work can start again after this setback.