The structure was located five blocks east of the Worcester central business district, near Union Station and adjacent to Interstate 290. An off-duty police officer first called in the fire at 6:13pm after noticing grey/white smoke coming from the roof of the building. At around the same time an off-duty firefighter from neighbouring Auburn passed the building on I-290 and radioed his Fire Control to report smoke coming from the roof. He told them to inform the Fire Chief "this is going to be a multiple-alarm fire."