Building fire on Ruston Way

I went down for takeout on the waterfront this evening and stumbled upon a large fire. The old building just south of Harbor Lights on Ruston Way was an inferno around 6:30pm. The road was closed, fire trucks and firemen everywhere. They had been there for awhile, so the sirens were off, and the entire image was very surreal. Giant flames were shooting 25 feet in the air out of the building and dark yellow/grey smoke billowed up and out over the water. An Amtrak passenger train passed about 30 feet from the flames and the travellers were given a great fire view as a vivid memory of Tacoma. Aside from the train, everything seemed eerily quiet. Suddenly I realized I had headed down the hill sans camera. This was a helpless, frustrating moment. You would have loved to see the photos I would have snapped. I even scanned the crowd of onlookers to find nobody taking pictures (I would have asked for them to email me). So instead of great photos of a really big fire in a cool old building on a nice evening on the charming Tacoma waterfront, you only get to read this.