River Street building in Sanford a 'total loss' after wind-driven blaze

SANFORD, Maine — The building that caught fire on River Street on Thursday is a total loss – literally, in that it no longer exists.

On Friday, Sanford Fire Lt. Joe Wilbur said that excavators already had torn down the two-story building at 29 River Street, which had commercial spaces on its bottom floor and two apartments above.

“There’s nothing left but a cellar hole and tons of debris,” Wilbur said. “Demolition was the only option.”

According to Wilbur, the old building had a metal roof and other aspects of its design that made it difficult for firefighters to battle the flames inside. Firefighters were not able to find or create a point of entry on the roof through which they could attack the fire head-on, making demolition necessary to ensure the blaze could be completely snuffed.

“We had to attack it from the top,” Wilbur said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the state’s fire marshal office, Wilbur said. The Sanford Police Department is assisting, he added.

Three tenants and a few pets have been displaced by the fire, but all are safe and did not experience any injuries, Wilbur said.

Wilbur could not confirm whether the commercial space was occupied. For years, the Sanford Food Pantry, now located at 1204 Main Street, operated at that location.

Firefighters got the call about the emergency at around 11:40 a.m. A small crew of them stayed at the scene overnight to keep an eye on it, Wilbur said. Firefighters cleared the scene at 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

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The fire was not the only element firefighters battled at the scene. The afternoon’s high winds, which surpassed 20 miles per hour, fanned the flames, kept the billows of black and gray smoke low, and pushed them through the neighborhoods to the east.

No one suffered any smoke-related ailments, but Wilbur said he did see social media posts in which neighbors commented that smoke had gotten into and around some homes.

“A wind-driven fire will create extremely treacherous conditions, which are very hazardous,” Wilbur said.

Wilbur said embers blew from the scene, drifted over to the nearby Stenton Trust Mill, and caused a small fire.

“We were able to put that one down in minutes,” Wilbur said.

For nearly 100 years, that mill had a twin erected alongside it. In 2017, that second mill was destroyed by a fire that ripped through all its levels and turned the historic building into an inferno.

Wilbur said the house next door to the fire sustained exterior damage.

During the incident, local police officers blocked off a stretch of River Street as well as a few side roads. Motorists were not able to cross the nearby bridge over Number One Pond.

Firefighters from Waterboro, Kennebunk, Wells, Lebanon, Alfred, Acton, and Rochester, New Hampshire, assisted at the scene. Firefighters from Shapleigh and Ogunquit provided station coverage.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: River Street building in Sanford a 'total loss' after wind-driven fire