Downtown Port Orchard fire 'suspicious', chief says
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. -- A three-alarm fire that ripped through a vacant Mexican restaurant and smothered upstairs apartments with smoke Thursday night on Port Orchard's main street is being called suspicious, the Kitsap Sun reported.
According to the Sun, Port Orchard's Police Chief Geoffrey Marti called the 8 p.m. fire at the former Los Cabos Mexican restaurant in the 600 block of Bay Street atypical of most blazes he's seen.
"We're starting to interview some people because we have some concerns," Marti told the Sun.
Fire crews were called to the South Kitsap fire at 8:07 p.m. Three people living in upstairs apartments were forced to climb out a bathroom window and jump into the bed of a truck across the street. The three were taken to the Harrison Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. Three others living in the apartment escaped unharmed.
Los Cabos restaurant has sat vacant for years.
More than 40 emergency responders on the scene helped put out the fire by 9 p.m. Marti said a Port Orchard detective has been called in to investigate the fire.
This is the second large fire on Port Orchard's Bay Street in recent years, as a blaze tore through iconic downtown restaurant Myhre's in 2011, causing thousands of dollars in damage.