UPDATE 8:20 a.m.: Lost Coast Outpost major contributor Mark McKenna sent in the following superb photos (click to enlarge), and below them we have an update from Kathleen Bryson.

Kathleen Bryson called in to say that while several windows were “blown out” and had to be boarded up, “no art or laptops were killed.”

The fire, she said, started under the stairs and was “clearly arson.”  Bryson added, “Officials are checking cameras from nearby businesses and hope to come up with a suspect.”

Calling the firefighters “heroes,” Bryson expressed thankfulness that no one was injured.

LoCO will be following up with more details as they come in. [Updated by Kym Kemp.]

UPDATE, 11:05 p.m.: Photo from KWPT’s Eli Rohl:

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UPDATE, 11 p.m.: “I think it is arson,” attorney Kathleen Bryson told the Lost Coast Outpost’s Kym Kemp moments ago. “I had my window broken for the first time this week.”

DJ Eli Rohl of KWPT-FM tells the Outpost that the smoke can be smelled as far away as Harbor Lanes.

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Contributor Mark McKenna writes in to let us know that he is at the scene of a fire — which appears to be out now — at the corner of Fifth and I streets in downtown Eureka. 

“It was out when I got there,” McKenna writes. “They still have some smoke and can’t figure it out.”

Scanner traffic indicates that the fire took place in the building catty-corner from the courthouse which houses the law offices of Kathleen Bryson, among other businesses. Humboldt Bay Fire currently has one lane of Fifth Street closed while they conduct operations.

The fire department also briefly called for coverage from Arcata and Samoa. That coverage has been canceled.