A fire at a building in downtown Lawrence on Sunday afternoon has damaged at least one business.

A Lawrence man who was working in a photography studio on the second floor of the building at Eighth and Vermont streets escaped as smoke rose from the first floor.

“At first I thought it was just leaves burning. Then it got stronger, and you could see smoke coming out of the floor,” said Dan Ray, manager of PTI Studios.

No one was injured in the blaze, said interim fire chief Mark Bradford, and from the outside, the structure appears intact.

The damaged building is a large red brick two-story structure at the southwest corner of Eighth and Vermont streets, across the street from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical’s Station No. 1.

The building houses at least three businesses; two are on the first floor, Bradford said.

“I’d say right now that moderate damage was sustained,” Bradford said. “The businesses down here below have significant damage.”

Firefighters entered the building through the Mystic Realm, 203 W. Eighth St. It is a metaphysical and religious shop that sells items such as incense, Buddha statues and other items, said Russ Bixby, who works on maintenance for the shop.

Bixby said he thought the building was built in the 1870s.

For more on this story, see the 6News report at 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s channel 6 and pick up a copy of Monday’s Journal-World.