An investigation is underway to find the cause of a large fire on the Custom House Wharf in Portland Friday night.
Crews were sent to the scene of a heavy visible fire at 5:33 PM, which was elevated to three alarms and drew support from South Portland and Westport fire departments.
There was heavy damage, with one building totaled and numerous properties damaged. Maritime Antiques suffered significant damage.
One firefighter suffered minor injuries, but no hospitalizations were reported. Firefighters faced challenges on land, including frozen fire hydrants due to frigid temperatures, but utilized boats to combat the flames.
“Unfortunately, it looks like the fire had a pretty good head start on us when we got down here,” said Deputy Chief John Hendricks. “But the first in companies did a great job, and they made a really aggressive attack to keep it from spreading down the rest of the wharf.”
Hillary Robbins, an employee at Andy’s Old Port Pub, described what she saw to CBS 13 News. “We heard a loud bang, explosion like, and we walked outside to see what was going on and we looked down the wharf and saw smoke coming out of the very last building on the wharf.”
The State Fire Marshal’s Office is now involved in the investigation of the fire.
