Video: Blaze destroys downtown Everett building

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 EVERETT, Wash. - Investigators say they may never know the cause of a fire that destroyed the Stewart Title Co. building Wednesday night, causing an estimated $1 million in damages.

Officials concluded their investigation of the building Thursday afternoon, saying it was too dangerous for them to enter. While they did examine the building from the outside, they said they wouldn't risk going in.

Karen Clausen watched her business go up in flames Wednesday.

"It's a shock, I mean it's kind of like a baby you've built and it's just - there it is in ashes," she said.

Clausen and her partners had been in the building for nine years and the fire destroyed it all in one night.

With all the troubles in the mortgage industry, people wondered aloud Thursday if it might have been arson.

"It can't help but enter your mind, I mean who would have done that?" Clausen said.

The fire at the one-story building at 2721 Wetmore Avenue was reported just before 9 p.m. Pictures from the KING5 News tower cam showed flames and smoke billowing high into the air.

"The crews arrived here really quickly and reported the building was already heavily involved in flames, flames coming out of everywhere basically," Everett Fire Marshall Glen Martinsen said.

Firefighters began attacking the flames; some went inside while others went to the building's roof.

When the firefighters began punching holes in the roof to see what was burning inside, the flames began shooting through the holes.

With flames shooting through the roof, Martinsen said firefighters took a defensive stand and prevented the fire from spreading to the nearby buildings.

"(It) was obviously everything underneath them was on fire," Martinsen said. "We went defensive due to the fact that the fire was already so intense that the structure itself was getting dangerous for our people to be in and since it appeared to be unoccupied we pulled them (firefighters) out."

None of the company's 30 employees were inside when the fire broke out.

Rick Deal was at a nearby home when the fire broke out. He said it was the strong smell of smoke that caught his attention.

"When we arrived it was smoking like holy mackerel," Deal said. "We were standing back here and the windows just started popping out one after another."

The intensity of the fire prompted a call for more help.

"It (the fire response call) went to two alarms, so that is all of the active Everett crews on duty.  Plus we got three mutual aid companies, one from Marysville, one from Naval Station Everett and one from Paine field," said Martinsen.

The fire crews concentrated on keeping the fire from jumping to nearby taller buildings.

"The building to the south was taking a lot of heat and fire onto it so we've been putting water on the other buildings," Martinsen said.

Stewart Title is based in Dallas and also has an office in Bothell.

The president of the Stewart Title Co. in Everett says it has computer backups of its records.

Carl Jorgensen says the business is continuing to operate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.