FORT KENT, Maine — The cause of the weekend fire that destroyed three historic buildings in downtown Fort Kent may never be known.
“The state fire marshal’s office says the cause of the huge fire will go down as undetermined,” Stephen McCausland, department of public safety spokesman, said in a statement he released Tuesday afternoon. “Investigators said the extensive damage hampered efforts to pinpoint the cause.”
Investigators from the fire marshal’s office had been on the scene since Sunday morning interviewing residents and witnesses to the fire which broke out after midnight Sunday morning.
Investigators were able to determine the fire started inside one of the buildings owned by Nadeau’s House of Furniture and from there spread to two other buildings.
Within minutes of the fire’s being reported, local law enforcement personnel were able to evacuate the occupants of seven apartments on the second floors of the buildings. In all, 11 tenants were left homeless by the blaze.
Destroyed were the historic building housing Nadeau’s House of Furniture in addition to the Acadia Home Care building and a vacant building in-between.
“My first concern when I saw the flames were the people living in the apartments,” Nadeau’s House of Furniture owner Pat Labbe said Monday. “When I looked and saw them all lined up across the street, I was overcome with emotion.”
Most of those tenants escaped with only the clothes on their backs and fundraising efforts have sprung up around Fort Kent to help those displaced by the fire.
Spearheading one of the initiatives is Alan Susee, owner of the Sears store located directly across the street from the fire scene.
Sears, along with neighboring Radio Shack and Roger’s Sports Center, sustained some cosmetic and minor structural damage due to the fire’s extreme heat which melted signs and cracked windows.
Susee is quick to acknowledge the work of the firefighters in saving his and the other businesses.
Nine fire departments from Maine and New Brunswick responded to the fire and used water pumped directly from the nearby St. John River to fight the fire.
“I feel so fortunate to have escaped this [fire] relatively unscathed,” Susee said Monday. “I care about people and it is tragic they have lost everything they own.”
His Sears store and Norstate Federal Credit Union are now the official collection points for cash donations for victims of the fire.
By Tuesday insurance adjusters had met or contacted building owners and, in the case of the Labbes’ property, ended up conducting the meeting in a private location.
“We couldn’t get anything done here,” Ellery Labbe said from his son’s flooring store. “People kept coming in to ask how we are doing and to offer help. The [insurance representative] said he’d never seen anything like it.”
Back in the mid-50’s, Arms showed me my first real curve ball behind the old, yellow, wooden high school. Brother Legs was behind the plate. The curve was a thing of beauty and a joy forever. The Labbe brothers were attending the University of Maine at the time. After the first pitch, I asked Legs to have Arms throw another…then another. Strike three. I stood there and watched all three. All three were absolutely beautiful pitches. To say I am sorry for the Labbe’s loss would be a vast understatement. I wish them well. I hope they read this and perhaps get a little lift from it. They won’t remember me but my Dad, Chet Woodbury, was the pharmacist at Fort Kent Drug at the time. I was the second baseman on the high school team and we won the Valley Championship that year. Bob Woodbury.
What a nice tribute. Surely, they’ll remember the connection. It still amazes me how they’re labeled Arms and Legs in all of our local phone books in parentheses.
Thank you. Here in the Waterville area, the former high school hockey coach is listed as “Spat” in the phone book. Not many know his real name.
Two years ago they had a massive flood in Fort Kent, and now this . I wonder why the good Lord is picking on this town. I bought most of my furniture from Arms and his kids. They are good people and certanly did not deserve this. I’m sure everyone is wondering if they will ever rebuild their furniture store.