Gainsbourg Lounge, 8550 Greenwood Ave. N., is reopening tonight with a limited menu and a brand new bar after a kitchen fire in early December.

From co-owner Hannah Levin:

We will have a proper grand re-opening party on Saturday, January 28th, when we’ll reveal a revamped menu and have a few notable musical guests in the house (Kaylee Cole and a few others to be announced), but wanted you to know that we are opening tonight with a limited menu and a brand-new bar that’s undeniably sexier and more inviting than our old one.

Gainsbourg restaurant and bar at 8550 Greenwood Ave. N. was damaged in a fire Saturday afternoon and will be closed for several days for professional cleaning and damage repair.

From Owner JJ Wandler:

(W)e had a kitchen fire which has caused us to have to shut down for a few days while we have the restaurant professionally cleaned, replace some of our damaged kitchen equipment, and in the process, remodel our bar. We are happy that no one was injured in the fire as it happened before we were set to open on Saturday night. We are also pleased that there was no structural damage to our building. We are looking forward to reopening as soon as possible!

Wandler tells me that three employees were in the restaurant at the time. Gainsbourg hopes to reopen within 10 days. We will keep you posted.

Update 11:15 a.m.: Wandler just sent photos of the damage.

And a closeup of the stove:

The Defenders of Greenwood welcomed the community to their new Fire Station 21 in Phinney-Greenwood today, and thousands of neighbors packed into the new two-story station.

The truck bay as seen from the stairwell.

Several tables were set up around the truck bay, with various activities for children, from coloring their own stickers, to correctly identifying hot objects they should never play with, to stacks of red plastic fire hats (which I noticed a few adults were wearing as well!)

Children color their own stickers.

Kids also got to try on official firefighting gear.

And meet Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean.

Top Pot Doughnuts had its mobile truck parked outside, handing out free old-fashioned donuts.

Artist Perri Lynch (below, second from left) designed and fabricated the stone-and-glass sculpture in front of the station. By the end of the month, the glass panels of the sculpture will be lit bluish-green when the firefighters are in-house, and will change to reddish-orange when the firefighters are on a call.

Just before this morning’s open house, the owners of Avanti Art & Design right across the street, presented the firefighters with a specially framed Fire Station 21 flag. The flag used to fly from the back of the fire engine many years ago. Several months ago, the firefighters had asked Avanti for a simple frame for the flag.

Instead, Avanti’s co-owners, Wendy Keen and Emmalee Bozek, asked a friend, woodcarver Baer Charlton to create something special.

Charlton found some 100-year-old vertical grain fir that had been in a fire. Charlton estimated he spent “more than 40, less than a hundred” hours creating the frame, which is 3 feet wide and 4 feet tall.

“It needs to be preserved and it needs to be showed off appropriately,” Charlton said.

Textile artist Charlene Bozek did the hand dying for the fabric backround.

The owners of Avanti said they missed having the firefighters across the street while the new station was under construction, and are happy to have them back.

“They’re the ones keeping us safe out there, Keen said. “We’re just really happy to have them watching out for us.”

One day after the second anniversary of the arson that destroyed four Greenwood restaurants, the Arson Alarm Foundation and Liberty Mutual/Safeco Insurance rewarded two people for coming forward with information that helped in the arrest and conviction of Kevin Todd Swalwell for setting a total of 11 fires in 2009 – 10 of them in Greenwood.

One of those receiving the award was Swalwell’s former wife, Carol Iverson. She shared the reward with her brother, Robert.

Robert Iverson and his sister, Carol, hold the presentation check while sitting on the stage at Taproot Theatre.

Swalwell was arrested Nov. 13, just after setting fire to a warehouse in Shoreline late the night before. He pleaded guilty to 11 fires, blaming his actions on mental illness, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Carol and Robert received the $18,500 reward this morning at Taproot Theatre, which was heavily damaged in the Oct. 23 fire, and which also owned the adjacent Eleanor Roosevelt Building, which was completely destroyed. Four businesses in that building on North 85th Street – Green Bean Coffeenouse, CC Teriyaki, Szechuan Bistro and Pho Tic Tac – were destroyed.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Building on North 85th Street on fire on Oct. 23, 2009.

Liberty Mutual/Safeco Insurance provided $15,000 towards the reward; the Arson Alarm Foundation, comprised of 11 insurance companies, added $3,500.

John Lewitt, lead investigator for the Seattle Police Department Arson and Bomb Squad, said that after the Iversons called in the tip, investigators had their eye on Swalwell for a while.

“It at least gave us something to go on,” Lewitt said. “Carol actually told me she hadn’t seen Kevin for at least 10 years.”

“I knew it was him right away,” Carol said.

She was married to Swalwell from 1994 to 2000 and divorced him while he was in prison for setting fire to their apartment building in 1995. When he got out of prison in 2002, he pounded on her door and she was very scared of him. She said as soon as she heard that the Greenwood arsonist was rolling up carpets and newspapers and shoving them under doors to light, she knew it sounded like her ex-husband.

But Carol said she was almost too scared to call police, and asked her brother to call instead.

“Because I thought he was going to come after me,” she said of Swalwell.

“Our public safety rests on you for stepping up…and having the courage to come forward and stop these Greenwood arsons,” said Karl Newman of the Arson Alarm Foundation. “Our heartfelt thanks.”

Lewitt said that while interrogating Swalwell, he went from having a very specific alibi the morning of the Oct. 23 arson, to saying he was just a lookout for the Nov. 9 fire that burned Olive You. Swalwell first pleaded not guilty, then later changed his plea to guilty.

The 11 fires that Swalwell was convicted of setting:

• The former OK Corral restaurant at 8733 Greenwood Ave. N. on June 19.
• Behind a building housing Moonphoto and Wish at 7708 Greenwood Ave. N. on Aug. 12.
• A house fire at 108 NW 84th St. on Aug. 13. That fire seriously burned one man and displaced another family.
• A building housing O-Rings West at 1111 N. 98th St. on Aug. 13.
• The Eleanor Roosevelt Building at 208 NW 85th St., on Oct. 23; that fire destroyed Green Bean Coffeehouse, Pho Tic Tac, CC Teriyaki and Szechuan Bistro; and heavily damaged Taproot Theatre, and caused smoke and water damage to several other adjacent businesses.
• CPA Seattle at 338 NW 85th St. on Nov. 5.
• Rosewood Guitar at 8401 Greenwood Ave. N. on Nov. 5.
• Moonphoto at 7704 Greenwood Ave. N. on Nov. 8.
• Olive You at 8516 Greenwood Ave. N. on Nov. 9.
• Greenwood Quickstop at 8102 Greenwood Ave. N. on Nov. 9.
• The massive blaze at NW Discount in Shoreline on Nov.12

He was also convicted of second degree burglary for breaking into the Green Bean Coffeehouse just prior to setting it on fire.

The 10 Greenwood fires caused more than $2.2 million in damage.

Carol said she didn’t know anything about a reward until several months after he was arrested. The Iversons plan to use the money to pay some bills and maybe go out for a nice dinner.

“I’m proud of her,” Robert said of his sister.

“Don’t be afraid to do something,” Carol said. “Don’t be afraid to do what’s right.”

Update: According to a fire department spokesperson, the fire started in the basement of the building and was quickly put out. Most of the damage was from smoke. There were no injuries.

There was a large fire response at Phinney Avenue North and North 64th Street this afternoon. Seattle Fire Real Time 911 showed six fire engines and numerous other fire department personnel on scene.

Thanks to Kat for the Twitter tip and a picture of the scene.

Lisa at Deluxe Hair, 6512 Phinney Ave. N., tells us that water damage from a small fire in the unit above the hair salon on Monday damaged their space. The shop is closed  for repairs, but they’ve set up an agreement for the month of  August to work out of Sugarcomb Salon, 780 N. 73rd St.

Deluxe Hair’s phone numbers remain the same for booking appointments. Call Lisa at 206-297-2002 or Isabella at 206-954-8811.

The Seattle Fire Department confirms that a house fire that killed a dog in Greenwood last Saturday was caused by a build-up of lint in the dryer vent.

From SFD’s Fire Line:

The quick actions of Seattle firefighters prevented a house fire from spreading to nearby homes. On Saturday, June 25 at 6:30pm, a neighbor reported seeing smoke coming from the roof of a home located on the 200 block of North 90th Street. Engine 21 arrived within four minutes and began battling the fire in the one story wood framed home. With Engine 35 supplying water, the crew gained control of the fire in less than 10 minutes. The crews contained the flames to a back corner of the approximately 750 square-foot house. Firefighters from Engines’ 16, 24 and Ladder Trucks 5 and 8, assisted in knocking the entire fire down in less than half-an hour.

Investigators determined that lint built up in the vent system of the dryer started the fire. Damage to the home is estimated at 25-thousand dollars.

The National Fire Protection Administration (NFPA) estimates between 2003 and 2006, one out of every 23 home fires was caused by the dryers or washing machines. In 2006, the NFPA estimates firefighters responded to 17,700 fires caused by the household appliances. The leading cause of these fires according to NFPA is failure to clean the lint from the dryer. The NFPA recommends regular cleaning of the lint vents, making sure the air exhaust vent pipe and outdoor vent flap are not restricted.

Capt. R. Shakoor-Asadi of Fire Station 21 looks at the burned dryer where the fire started on June 25.

A black lab died in a house fire at 209 N. 90th St. in Greenwood tonight. The first call came in to the fire department at 6:32 p.m. The occupant of the rental house was not home at the time, and as of 8 p.m., no one had been able to contact him yet. However, the owner of the home had been contacted.

Fire investigators determined that the accidental fire started in the dryer near the back door. Batallion Chief R. R. Mondragon said it looked like the fire had been smoldering for some time, and that the dog had been dead for a while.

Capt. R. Shakoor-Asadi of Fire Station 21 looks at the burned dryer where the fire started.

Capt. R. Shakoor-Asadi of Fire Station 21 said it was a young boy living nearby who first smelled smoke and called 911.

A large contingent of firefighters quickly doused a fire in the basement of a house at 550 N. 71st St. in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood Sunday afternoon.

The fire was called in shortly before 5 p.m. The home’s occupants were not home at the time, but they did come running around the corner at about 5:35 p.m., and were relieved when firefighters told them their dog was safe at a neighbor’s house. They told firefighters they also had a cat, but they didn’t know if it was inside at the time of the fire.

Doree, who is at the scene, sent this picture:

That smoke you may have seen billowing from the far side of Green Lake this afternoon was an apartment building fire near I-5.

Photo from our sister site, My Green Lake.

The resident of the apartment where the fire started told our sister site My Green Lake that she thought the fire may have been caused by a cigarette that wasn’t fully extinguished, however, the Seattle Fire Department said the fire was caused by “combustibles placed against baseboard heater.” No one was injured.

Read My Green Lake’s full story here.

The Seattle Times reports that two Greenwood residents were seriously burned Wednesday afternoon after a kitchen fire started while they were trying to cook marijuana on their stove.

From the Times:

Seattle Fire Department medics responded to the fire at 10724 Fremont Ave. N. around 5:45 p.m., spokeswoman Sue Stangl said. It appears the two people may have been attempting to make hemp oil, which is sold in some stores as a nutritional supplement, when a fire started on the stove and spread rapidly. The fire broke a window and damaged several kitchen appliances.

You can read the Times’ full story here.

The Knights of Columbus will have a benefit dinner this Saturday to benefit the Luberts family, whose home just over the Phinney Ridge/Ballard line was destroyed in a raging fire less than two weeks ago. Luckily, all seven family members escaped.

Come support a local Ballard family by sharing a delicious meal featuring pasta and meatballs, green salad, rolls and butter, coffee and punch.

The benefit is Saturday at 6:15 p.m. at St Alphonsus Parish Family Center (1415 NW 58th St). Donations will be collected and 100 percent of the proceeds benefit the Luberts Family Fund at Key Bank.