4 Firefighters in Seattle Killed in Blaze at Food Processing Plant

In what the city’s fire chief Friday called “the most devastating tragedy that has ever hit the Seattle Fire Department,” four firefighters were killed in an explosive inferno at a Chinese food processing plant.

City officials at a morning news conference said that the site was being treated as a crime scene and that a wide-ranging investigation--aided by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms--was under way to determine the cause of the five-alarm fire. But officials refused to comment on newspaper reports that Mary Pang’s Food Products Inc. in the International District had been under an arson watch because of threats.

“If this was an arson fire, we’ll do everything in our power to bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Seattle Mayor Norm Rice at the emotional press conference.

Firefighters entering the building about 7 p.m. Thursday “heard some bangs,” according to Fire Department spokesman Carlos Valdivia. “We don’t know if they were explosions, if they were beams breaking. We don’t know the cause.” Increasingly intense heat soon drove all but the four firefighters outside, forcing some to jump from the second floor of the building.

“The last one out said he heard another bang,” Valdivia said, and then the floor gave way, apparently trapping the four on the first floor. One of the dead, a lieutenant, “told his crew to ‘get the heck out of here’ and they bailed out,” Fire Chief Claude Harris said. “That’s some of the heroics that were exhibited here last night.”

Officially listed as missing throughout the night, the four men were declared dead on Friday morning. They were identified as James T. Brown, 25; Lt. Walter Kilgore, 45; Lt. Gregory Shoemaker, 43; and Randall Terlicker, 35. Crews began removing the bodies from the rubble late Friday evening. Five other firefighters were injured, none seriously.

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A member of a rock band called Dr. Unknown that rehearsed in the building noticed the fire when he showed up for practice, Valdivia said.

Nationally, it was the worst loss of life for a city fire department in more than three years, according to the National Fire Protection Assn.