A fire started in a storage unit late Friday morning, then spread to a parked car with a leaky gas tank, launching a stubborn blaze on the blacktop at the Factoria self-storage facility.

A man renting one of the units at the facility, on the 13200 block of Southeast 30th Street was apparently servicing some equipment around 11 a.m., when the fire started. Security tapes show a fireball about 15 feet tall coming from the unit, and the man running away with some of his cloths on fire.

The first fire crew on the scene was able to quickly extinguish the storage unit fire, but a nearby parked car had caught fire by then. It took several minutes to extinguish that blaze. A total of two fire engines and two ladder trucks responded to the fire. 

Paramedics evaluated the man at the scene and transported him to Harborview medical center. The extent of his burn injuries was unknown. The preliminary damage estimate to the structure was less than $15,000. The damage to the property in the storage unit had not been determined yet. The car appeared to be totaled.

The exact cause of the fire remained under investigation Friday afternoon. 

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