DULUTH, Minn. — Fire crews are fighting a large fire at a condemned hotel in Duluth in subzero conditions.
Engines were dispatched to the old Seaway Hotel in the Lincoln Park Craft District just after 7:30 a.m. on reports of fire. Arriving crews found heavy fire spewing from the first floor, and the flames quickly extended to the second floor.
Officials on the scene say the roof of the old Esmond building has collapsed and all firefighters have been pulled out of the building due to heavy smoke and unstable conditions. Some residents and workers in adjacent buildings, including tenants in apartments above Curly’s Bar, have been evacuated.
A nearby tower cam captured the huge plume of smoke rising from the wreckage, a cloud that could be seen for miles.
Duluth residents and passersby were asked to avoid the 20th and 21st blocks of West Superior Street while crews fight the fire, and deal with ice left in the aftermath.
The Esmond Building is owned by the Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority, and was condemned and slated for demolition after another building was constructed to house the hotel’s former residents.
In July the city's economic authority approved a proposed development deal that would construct a 45-unit apartment building at the southwest corner of Superior Street and 20th Avenue West, at an estimated cost of more than $9 million. The new development would also offer about 8,500 square feet of commercial space at street level.
Firefighters from Superior, Wisconsin are on the scene providing mutual aid.
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