Kitchen fire damages Hurricane Restaurant in Kennebunkport's Dock Square

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — A pot left boiling overnight on a gas-range stove is believed to have sparked a fire that ripped through part of the kitchen at Hurricane Restaurant in Dock Square on May 26.

“It just boiled the water out and heated the pot,” said Kennebunkport Fire Chief John Everett, moments after firefighters cleared the scene around 9:45 a.m.

Everett motioned to the pot, which sat, partially melted, amid other debris on the pavement of the parking lot behind the restaurant. Large, charred bones, which had been in the process of being boiled for stock, could be seen inside the pot.

“Aluminum will melt at, I believe, 1,200 degrees,” Everett added.

Everett was pretty much on target: according to Onlinemetals.com, aluminum begins to melt at 1,220 degrees Fahrenheit.

Everett said there were two people inside the restaurant who called the Fire Department once they discovered a fire had started. One firefighter – Everett, himself – was already on the way, as he saw smoke billowing from the restaurant as he turned onto Western Avenue from Cooper’s Corner on his way to work at a little after 8 a.m. on Thursday morning.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt,” Everett said.

The fire was relatively contained, with flames and smoke rising from the stove, slipping into the wall space behind it, rising into the attic, and escaping from a vent above, according to Everett.

“Fortunately, since it had a path, it didn’t super-heat everything on its way out,” Everett said. “The fire pretty much stayed in the wall. There wasn’t very much fire damage up in the attic.”

The fire, though brief and contained, occurred at a critical time in the local restaurant business, as Memorial Day weekend, traditionally the start of summer and the tourist season here in coastal Maine, approaches.

Everett said the exact time the fire started is not known. He said the last employee left the restaurant on Wednesday night sometime between 10 and 10:30 p.m. He said, however, that if the flames had started even earlier than they apparently did – say, at 4 a.m. or so – then the whole roof could have caught fire.

The restaurant’s dining room and offices were not damaged in the incident, according to Everett. The building will need a “good cleaning,” however, he added.

In battling the flames, firefighters had to “pull out” a portion of the ceiling in the kitchen and some of the wall behind the stove, Everett said. Indeed, a hole could be seen in the exterior on one side of the restaurant.

The Kennebunk Fire Department assisted with an engine at the scene, Everett said.

Deputy Code Enforcement Officer Andrew Welch worked with Taylor Benetti, the owner of the restaurant, to get the premises back up to code so it could reopen. The restaurant reopened for business on Saturday, May 28, according to it Facebook page.

Benetti could not be reached for comment.

Hurricane Restaurant is just one of several buildings that are in close proximity to each other in historic Dock Square. Referring to that proximity, Everett spoke with relief when describing how the Hurricane fire had been brief and contained.

“If we can keep it in the building of origin, in this area, we’re doing good,” he said.

Everett said there was some “good luck” involved this time around, given employees had arrived in time to catch the fire and Everett himself had seen the smoke from a short distance.

“That it was still in the stages that it was in was good for us,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hurricane Restaurant in Kennebunkport ME damaged by kitchen fire