Fire Collapses Roof of Chelan Food Mart Early Tuesday Morning

A three-alarm fire at the Chelan Food Mart on East Woodin Ave. collapsed the roof and required evacuation of a neighboring house early Tuesday morning.

Chelan Fire and Rescue Lt. Shawn Sherman was first on the scene around 4:00 a.m.

"It didn't look like there was any active flames when we first arrived there, but there was smoke showing so we knew we had a fire somewhere. It looked like it was probably in the concealed attic space."

Shortly thereafter flames were seen on the roof and a neighbor was evacuated.

Sherman says asked for a third alarm in addition to the volunteer and career firefighters that were arriving.

"As soon as I had enough people, I set up an interior attack plan. Then, just about that time the plan was coming together part of the roof collapsed. So that turned the incident into a defensive fire only so we couldn't make entry."

The fire was under control in about 90 minutes with the help of 33 personnel and 14 apparatus.

Chelan Fire and Rescue received assistance from Manson, Entiat, Orondo, the Sheriff's Office and Lake Chelan Community Hospital. No one was injured.

The cause is under investigation, but a neighbor says they thought they heard an explosion.