SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine — A fire Monday of undetermined origin destroyed a longtime waterfront restaurant, reducing it to a pile of rubble after firefighters fought for more than six hours to limit the damage.
The Moorings, located off Shore Road in the village of Manset, caught fire sometime late Monday morning. Fire Chief Sam Chisholm said the fire was reported shortly after noon and by the time he arrived a few minutes later, flames were coming out of the building.
The fire appeared to have started in or near an electrical room off the kitchen, spreading into the ceiling and eventually throughout the entire roof.
“It just kept going,” Chisholm said. “It was frustrating because I thought we had [contained] it.”
Inspectors from the State Fire Marshal’s Office are expected to be in Southwest Harbor this morning to see whether the cause of the fire can be determined, the chief said.
Heath Higgins, the restaurant owner, said he had been at the business earlier Monday morning and nothing was wrong. A deliveryman with a food distributor made a delivery at the restaurant while Higgins was out, locking the door behind him when he was done, and didn’t notice anything amiss, he said. The food delivery was made not long before the fire was reported, he said. Higgins found out about the fire when someone called his cell phone. He said he got there before the Fire Department and found thick black smoke throughout the building when he opened the main door.
Higgins said the business is insured but on Monday evening he was not sure what he would try to do. Among his immediate plans, he said, was taking his staff of nine employees, including his daughter, out to dinner somewhere and trying to help them find other jobs. Some had come from out of state to work at the seasonal restaurant, which had opened for the summer only a few weeks ago.
Higgins, who has owned the business since 2002, said the building was 60 years old but that he had made several improvements since he bought it. He said he frequently hosted special functions there during the off-season such as proms for middle school students in neighboring Tremont and fundraisers for the Lions Club.
Higgins said the fire couldn’t have happened at a worse time of year. “This is when you make all your money and make all your payments,” Higgins said. Higgins thanked employees at Hinckley Yachts, adjacent to his property, for moving some of their equipment to make room for firetrucks and for helping him try to grab some of his belongings. One of them managed to pull an outdoor motor he had on the restaurant property out of harm’s way, he said.
Higgins said he was glad the fire did not spread to neighboring buildings. One is owned by Hinckley Yachts to the immediate west and the Moorings Inn, which has a different owner, is to the immediate east.
“I’m glad nobody got hurt,” Higgins said.
According to Chisholm, about 50 firefighters from Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert and Tremont went to the fire. Mount Desert brought a ladder truck that firefighters used to train water from an elevated hose onto the burning building.
That truck and another ladder truck owned by Southwest Harbor helped prevent damage to neighboring properties, he said.
“Having these two ladder trucks saved these two buildings,” Chisholm said.
