Manitowoc firefighters responded to a business fire downtown at 2:30 Thursday afternoon. Smoke and a smell of burning wood were reported in a suite in a three-story building on the 900-block of S. 8th St., which is also Highway 10. People in the suite evacuated and notified people in other suites in the building about the smoke. Firefighters saw flames around an outdoor light fixture and found the fire burning inside the walls on the second floor. The flames and smoke were spreading through a large void space above the lights. They managed to contain the fire and put it out quickly before it spread any further. The fire department credits “the keen smell of the staff” in the suite that reported the fire. It says “the time of day was definitely a benefit” since the fire could have spread unnoticed when the building wasn’t occupied.