BANGOR, Maine — The owner of a downtown Bangor restaurant says he hopes to be open for dinner Thursday night, in spite of a fire that knocked it out of commision just before lunch Wednesday.
A fire in one of the ventilation shafts behind Blaze forced about a dozen employees and patrons to flee the building at 16-18 Broad St.
Owner Matt Haskell credited Bangor firefighters for arriving quickly, within a minute or two, and preventing any major damage to the historic building or his restaurant.
“The ventilation system did its job, too,” by keeping the flames away from spreading to the brick building, Haskell said.
The fire started about 11:15 a.m. in the ventilation shaft that services the wood-fired grill employees use to cook burgers and steaks. Soon after, fire crews were called to West Market Square after reports of “heavy smoke in the downtown area,” Bangor Fire Chief Tom Higgins said.
Crews eventually extinguished persistent flames in the metal ductwork that stretches up the back of the four-story building.
“Something got up into the ventilation shaft and ignited the creosote in the stack,” Haskell said, adding that the shaft had been cleaned within the past seven weeks and was stickered and inspected. The shaft next to it, which services the brick oven used to cook pizza and other items, was cleaned just last week, he said.
The timing of the fire will be bad for business, Haskell said, with Mother’s Day and the Husson University graduation coming up this weekend.
Haskell said he hopes to reopen as early as Thursday night, with a slightly smaller menu, using the brick oven and the rest of the undamaged kitchen equipment. He’ll need city approval before doing so, and he cautioned that he may need to close for a couple days.
He hopes to have the damaged ventilation system and grill repaired by the middle of next week, if not sooner.
Fire and water damage were minimal, except for to the grill and its ventilation system, which will need repairs. Fire crews also had to tear into a small section of the wall to access the flames.
City code enforcement officers are expected to investigate, Higgins said.
BDN writer Ryan McLaughlin contributed to this report.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.