SEQUIM –– The owner of a building that burned last Monday is waiting until it is inspected this Tuesday before determining what she and the owners of the two businesses that shared the building will do.
“It’s a huge waiting game,” Candy Diesen said last week.
Diesen’s building, which housed Baja Cantina Mexican restaurant and Sequim Consignment Co. at 820 W. Washington St., was all but destroyed in Monday’s blaze.
Firefighters from Clallam County Rural Districts 2 and 3 and the city of Port Angeles spent five hours extinguishing the blaze, which District No. 3 spokesman Patrick Young said is believed to have started in the attic.
“Currently, the assumption is it’s an attic fire,” he said.
Fire inspectors viewed the site from a ladder truck after the fire, but Young said they realized there was too much danger from an unstable ceiling to go inside.
Insurance investigators will take over the scene Tuesday, he said.
Diesen said she won’t know until she hears from the investigators whether she will have to replace only the roof or rebuild the whole building.
The fate of the businesses is also on hold.
“We really want to see if we need to start helping them look for a new location or how long this might be,” Diesen said.
“We have no idea about any of the equipment or the stock of the store or if anything is salvageable.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
