Fire destroys downtown Bend office building; ‘total loss’

A downtown Bend office building, built 30 years ago on the site of famed Klondike Kate’s house, was destroyed by a hot, smoky fire Wednesday morning that sent up a tall plume visible across the city and snarled traffic in the area.

No injuries were reported.

Bend firefighters responded around 6:20 a.m. to the reported fire at the “Kate’s Place” office building at 225 Northwest Franklin Avenue, which housed A Superior Property Management, Alpine Chiropractic and Anjou Spa, said Bend Fire Battalion Chief Dave Howe.

Crews saw the large smoke column as they headed to the fire, finding a 10,000 square-foot commercial building full of smoke, Howe said.

“After making entry to the building, they encountered a large body of fire and were forced to retreat by the heat,” Howe said in an initial news release at midday. “Because of the extent of the fire and building materials used, it took well over an hour to fully knock down the fire. The building and contents are a total loss.” An estimate of those losses was still being tallied.

It took hours for the scene to cool enough for investigators to get in and start to look for the fire’s cause.

Howe said later Wednesday investigators had “made some progress toward the point of origin of the fire” but that city building officials “asked them to stop work and leave the building” until a structural engineer can determine the integrity of the building.” He said they hope to resume their work Thursday.

The fire and efforts by nearly 30 firefighters closed Franklin Avenue for more than five hours. City Public Works crews assisted with barricades and runoff issues from the water used to battle the blaze. In addition, Bend Fire support volunteers helped with coffee, meals and other rehab duties.

Off-duty fire personnel were called in to help cover stations and handle other calls while a mutual-aid ladder truck responded from Sunriver, pouring water down from above on the smoky blaze.

“We do have a ladder truck of our own,” Howe explained. “But it is currently out of service, getting some critical repairs done to the ladder cable system. We also have a great relationship with our neighbors to the south.”

Franklin Avenue was closed, as numerous hoses were laid across the street; so was Harriman Street in the area. Fire officials said Franklin was blocked between Harriman and Lava Road and asked that motorists avoid the area if possible.

Thick smoke was just one of the challenges facing firefighters – so were the many trees on the property.

“Right now, it’s really hard to see the building, and that was one of the problems that the initial crews had,” Howe said at the scene. “Because they couldn’t actually see the building, with all the trees, to figure out exactly what was going on.”

“They had to get in real close, and it was real hot when they got in that close.” he added.

Haley Bier has worked at Anjou Spa for three years. Now the scene of all those memories are gone, as the fire ripped through the second-floor business.

“It’s our family — there’s probably 20 of us who just lost our jobs,” Bier said.

Andee Jesse, the owner of A Superior Property Management, rushed to her office when she heard the news. Firefighters were able to save some material for the property management business.

The same office building made the news back in January, when a Bend man, Christian Keller, 20, was arrested in a destructive break-in at Kate’s Place that damaged two law offices there at the time, as well as the spa. That included tipped-over cabinets, holes in walls, broken computers and damaged furniture and art. Police found the suspect nearby.

“Klondike Kate” was a Gold Rush-era dance-hall girl and vaudeville star who lived in a home on the site from 1922 to the mid-1950s. A last-ditch effort to move and save the house failed. A 6,900-square-foot office building went up on the location.

The home had a custom-made chimney covered with agates, thundereggs and obsidian and petrified wood she had collected from the desert. It was torn down in April 1985, over objections from the Deschutes County Historical Society.

At the time the building was constructed, Howe said, fire sprinklers were not required for a building of that size. He said current “requirements are much more complex.”

Howe noted in his news release that “working fire sprinklers operate to control a fire and buy occupants enough time to escape and for the fire department to make an interior attack. A sprinkler’s response time is generally under one minute.”