Coffee warehouse sustains light damage in Friday fire
Former firefighter recognized warning signs at building
A former firefighter who recognized signs of a problem at a downtown business Friday night called police and then alerted an employee inside the building to get out because of a fire.
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Minor damage was sustained inside Heritage Coffee's roasting warehouse at 625 W. 7th St., near the Federal Building, when dust under an electric boiler caught fire and started burning burlap coffee bean bags.
Tim Powers, whose father-in-law owns the Juneau Bowling Center next door, had been going to his car around 5:30 p.m. Friday to fetch some pictures when he heard a mechanical bell designed to go off when a sprinkler system is activated. The former Juneau volunteer firefighter also noticed water leaking from a pressure relief valve near the front of the building.
Knowing the sprinkler system had likely been set off inside the warehouse, he called police.
"I wouldn't have realized what it was unless I had training in it," Powers said of the clues that led him to determine there might be a fire inside.
Powers, his wife Kathy and her father, Jeff Jones, opened the warehouse's metal garage door and smoke poured out. They then ran around opening windows as coffee company employee Shaelyn Tucker came downstairs from her office to see who opened the door.
"We told her to get out, that there was a fire inside," Powers said.
Capital City Fire and Rescue and Juneau police responded to the fire, which had been contained when two sprinkler heads activated right above the burlap bags, said owner Grady Saunders.
"There was virtually no smoke damage and none of our product got wet," said Saunders, who founded Heritage Coffee in 1974 and now owns six locations in Juneau, plus the roasting operation downtown.
He estimated damage at less than $5,000, mostly due to the destroyed electric boiler that is suspected to have started the fire.
The minimal damage was cleaned up Saturday and normal operations would resume Monday, Saunders said.
• Contact Kim Marquis at 523-2279 or kim.marquis@juneauempire.com.