FORT KENT, Maine – A fast-moving fire had destroyed two buildings on Main Street and was threatening a third early Sunday morning.
Scores of firefighters from nine departments in Maine and New Brunswick responded to the fire which claimed a historic Fort Kent building housing Nadeau’s House of Furniture.
Tenants in apartments on the building’s second floor and from apartments in the neighboring structure were safely evacuated with only minutes to spare and no injuries had been reported as of early Sunday morning.
Among those helping to get the tenants out was Tony Enerva with the Fort Kent Police Department.
“We had literally minutes to get people out,” Enerva said from the scene Sunday morning. “We are really lucky nobody got hurt.”
Matt Bard, an employee for the town who was checking water control pumps behind the buildings around midnight, reportedly first spotted the fire.
First on the scene was Fort Kent Police Officer Richard Martin who said he could hear the flames behind the walls as he alerted tenants to the fire.
“It’s amazing how fast [the fire] went,” Martin said, adding it appeared the fire started in the rear of the buildings.
Residents escaped with just the clothes on their backs and Martin said one woman did not even have time to get her eyeglasses.
The two building’s close proximity to each other made it a challenging blaze to fight, according to Edward Endee, Fort Kent fire chief.
With the two buildings destroyed, crews had turned their attention to saving a third building housing the China Garden Restaurant.
Heat from the fire was so intense it shattered glass in two businesses across the street in addition to melting signs and damaging a pair of riding lawnmowers at Sears.
“I am absolutely stunned by this,” Alan Susee, owner of the Sears store said as he watched firefighters. “We’ve lost a real landmark here in town that is irreplaceable.”
The Nadeau’s House of Furniture building was constructed around 1880 and for the past 37 years, Ellery “Arms” Labbe and his sons Pat Labbe, David Labbe and Phil Labbe have operated furniture and flooring businesses from the site.
“This was not only a historical landmark,” Dave Labbe said as he watched the fire consume this family’s business. “My dad made it what it is today and we all worked so hard there for so many years and to look at it now, destroyed in a half hour — I just can’t believe it.”
Firefighters managed to save a separate building housing the flooring business but a third building used for furniture storage was heavily damaged by smoke, heat and water.
“Everyone is safe,” Labbe said. “When we heard there was a fire, our first thoughts were for the tenants and did they get out OK.”
Labbe said when he arrived and saw the tenants — including a young couple with a baby — safely outside, he broke down in tears.
Among the tenants was Chad Pelletier who was watching the fire with Labbe, and who was not at home when it broke out.
“When I got here there was nothing to see in the front [and] I walked around to the back and asked the firemen if I could go inside to get the keys to my truck so I could move it,” Pelletier said. “They would not let me in and by the time I’d walked around to the front again there were flames coming out the windows and I thought, ‘that’s it.’”
Firefighters on the scene reported the building was totally engulfed when they arrived and estimated it took less than 20 minutes for Nadeau’s House of Furniture to be completely destroyed.
“That building is in most of the historic photos you see of Fort Kent,” Don Guimond, town manager, said from the scene. “This has taken out the middle of our community [and] the heart of our downtown is gone.”
David Labbe said the business was insured and it is unknown how many of the tenants had renters’ insurance.
In addition to the Fort Kent Volunteer Fire Department, crews from St. Francis, St. Agatha, Frenchville, Madawaska, Cross Lake, Eagle Lake, St. Francois, New Brunswick and Clair, New Brunswick assisted at the fire. The state fire marshal was expected to be in Fort Kent Sunday to investigate.
THANK GOODNESS for Fort Kent town employee Matt Bard and Fort Kent Police Officer Richard Martin !!!
Then, most of the St. John Valley’s fire fighters were there … BRAVO.
At least one person was just plain lucky to get out:
http://www.fiddleheadfocus.com/story/text-message-saves-fort-kent-woman-fire7293
WOW atleast nobody was killed or hurt great job of working together!!!
Sad, I am glad everyone got out. Good job guys!!!!
Kudos to the St. John Valley fire fighters from both sides of the river !!!!!!!!!!
Thankfully no one was injured or killed. Just curious, why would a town employee be checking water control pumps at midnight on a Saturday? That just sounds pretty strange to me but I don’t know anything about the water control pump situation there.
Maybe it is a second job for him and that is when he works? Perhaps there was a problem somewhere and he got called out to see what was up?
Sounded a bit weird to me too, so I checked with family there.
Just behind these buildings is the dike that keeps the St. John River from flooding the town. Water can and does seep through, and is funneled in to several pumping stations that pump it back into the river. Should the pumps fail, the water ends up in the town sewer system. If this happens, the system may overflow, dumping sewage into the river. Not only bad for the environment, but then will come the EPA and their fines.
There are alarms to verify the pumps are working, but during flood stage they have an employee check the stations every couple hours just to be sure.
Thanks, his presence there at midnight sounds very logical with that explanation.
The question needs to be asked after reading what you wrote here: Was he there because an alarm had gone off or was he just checking at midnight on a Saturday because it’s job to and the fire is a coincidence?
My understanding is midnight was a scheduled check of the pumps behind Nadeau’s and he noticed the fire in progress.
sad that we always have to be suspicious of people doing their job or simply calling in a fire.
Sadder still that you can’t ask an innocent question without some busybody on here making a comment about it!
because that wasn’t an innocent question, it was pointing a finger at Matt. You all basically accused him of suspicious activity before Tony explained exactly why he was there. maybe the next time something like this happens a good samaritan might think twice before reacting for fear of prosecution! great job to all the fire departments for saving our town, and Matt you are the man!
Maybe you need to go back and read MY original post again. I named no one and I merely said that it sounded starnge to me that a city emplyee is checking pumps at migbnight. Theer was NO accusation made what so ever. He may be you buddy but this doesn’t give you the right to put words in other people’s mouths.
Saying it sounded strange is pretty much saying he shouldnt have been there
So just how many town employees (other than police or fire) would you normally expect to be working on a Saturday at midnight? That doesn’t sound just a little strange to you?
OK you win, you’re right … and everybody who questioned anything about this story were making direct accusations aimed at your friend. Satisfied now? Grow up.
actually no, it doesn’t, because if you work for the town or the state, there could be any number of reasons they are out working, and wow! it seems in the end this guy was out working for justified reason, trying to make sure the town didn’t get flooded. And actually, if this guy was out there because he was suspicious, wanted to set the place on fire, and if he really was dumb enough to call in a fire on a place that he set on fire, why would he give his name and an excuse like “he was working” that could easily be checked up on. If we instantly start jumping on the “heroes” in situations like this, then we won’t have anyone left that is willing to be the hero, the doctors on their way home from a night shift that sees a car accident and stops and saves someones life, or even an off duty fireman who jumps in to help with a fire. As easy as it is to be suspicious, its better to give the people the benefit of the doubt and let the investigators be the suspicious ones. Besides, i’m sure if that was a family members or friend of yours in there you would be more focused on being grateful that they survived than throwing blame in directions that don’t deserve it. Me stating the facts that you are unjustly suspicious of someone is not childish. You getting defensive of it is.
It would have been only an innocent question had the part about how “strange” it was had been excluded and simply said ” just curious….” and I think those prying into why someone was there to call in the fire and save lives and calling that “strange” or “suspicious ” are more the busybodys.
In Fort Kent we have a levee system that controls flood waters from the St John river. The river levels are up at this time and it requires us to put the levee in opperation. This is an old system and it is not automated so we have to monitor it manually every so many hours depending on the weather so that is why this man was at the station in town at that time. Hope this answers your question.
Thankfully everyone is safe. Buildings can be replaced all though it is sad to see an old historical building be forever gone. Im not from Fort Kent but I would like to say that Im sorry this has happened in your town. I would also like to say thank you to our Canadian neighbors for helping out.
Went to FT Kent was this winter ,snow sledding, had occasion to go to Rogers Sports Center almost directly across the street i think it was? never net nicer people.
Why would fort kent town employee Matt Bard be on the job working on a Saturday night around midnight???? And he was able to be the first one report the fire effectively ensuring there would be no lose of life .I’m not insinuating anything; but the question does beg to be asked.
I posted this earlier for someone who had the same question:
“Sounded a bit weird to me too, so I checked with family there.
Just behind these buildings is the dike that keeps the St. John River
from flooding the town. Water can and does seep through, and is
funneled in to several pumping stations that pump it back into the
river. Should the pumps fail, the water ends up in the town sewer
system. If this happens, the system may overflow, dumping sewage into
the river. Not only bad for the environment, but then will come the EPA
and their fines.
There are alarms to verify the pumps are working, but during flood
stage they have an employee check the stations every couple hours just
to be sure.”
I am the public works director in Fort Kent and we are the operators of this levee system that controls the flodd waters of the St. John river. It is not out of the ordinary to have public works employees out at all hours of the night. We work whenever we are needed. All public works employees in our town and most likely many other towns are on call 24 hours a day seven days a week. What the levee system does is during whenever river levels reach a certain height we close a huge gate that all the down town storm water passes through to get to the river when it is at normal levels. If we wouldn’t do this the flood waters would back up through this pipe and up through the storm drains and flood down town. When the gate is closed all the water from these drains gets diverted to a big holding tank under the pump station. When the tank reaches a certain level we have to go in and start up our diesel powered pumps ( 2 pumps that pump 9000 gallons per minute each) and pump this storm water over the levee system and into the St John river. It is an old system that was built in 1976 so it is completely manual. That is why this man was at the station on Saterday night at midnight. Depending on the weather we have to check the storage tank every so many hours and the weather doesn’t take the weekend off so we have to monitor 24/7. In a heavy down poor we have to be at the pump station all the time. This drainage system is in no way connected to the sewer system it is completely seperate. I hope this gives you a better understanding of how this all works and why this man was in town at midnight on Sat doing his job and more. Thank you
Thanks for the specifics.
why dont you let the fire investigator and state police do the job you pay them to do….i dont know of any vacancies in the fire marshals office so you wont be able to apply…..
“Matt Bard, an employee for the town who was checking water control pumps
behind the buildings around midnight, reportedly first spotted the
fire.”
checking water control pumps behind buildings at midnight??
not questioning the heroics – i mean obviously he was the one to spot the fire and whatnot but you’d think that kind of job would happen at a little more reasonable hour
Read below. He’s checking pumps involved in flood control.
And, yes it is flood season up north. I don’t have any pictures of Fort Kent right now, but here is one from Thursday in Perth-Andover. Perth is also on the St. John River, across the border from Fort Fairfield. They are under mandatory evacuation due to flooding.
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/542293_10151442528220188_643200187_23819197_1764215719_n.jpg
Imperceptus,
Here’s a link to pics what the flooding was like in 2008..
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/nerfc/basin_info/April08Flood.html
The water level wasn’t that high this year but it was upthere .. This weekends fire was in the area where it’s protected by the dike..
I am assuming these buildings are on the river side of Main Street. Am I correct? In the 50’s, we used to live on the second floor above Gannams Clothing, across the street from the A & P, both gone now.
“I am assuming these buildings are on the river side of Main Street. Am I correct? ”
That is correct ..
The Gannon building is still there, my dad did their IRS taxes Vic and Mike were great folks!!
Thank you. You’re absolutely right about the Gannons.
Seriously? People have to ask that question? People don’t’ work nights downstate? If it wasn’t for Matt.. the town would have nothing I mean nothing left! We lost everything we owned in that fire and if it wasn’t for Matt do what was asked of him from the town and being our friend wondering if we were okay..realizing no one knew did the most heroic thing by calling the fire department! So DON”T YOU PEOPLE JUDGE BEFORE YOU KNOW FACTS!!!!
Matt is a great kid !! way to be on your toes chum !!!! Danielle I’m so glad you and the rest of the renters in the other apartments made it out and it was because of Matt’s alertness, in doing so the Fort Kent police were able to react quickly to notify all the others.. Lots of heroics were in evidence last night.. Thanks to all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally some people that have common sense and don’t see this ulterior motive by everyone else
Poor downtown Fort Kent. Just a years ago it was flooding. Now fire. Let’s hope it’s a long spell before the next catastrophe hits.
I love Fort Kent & am glad no one was hurt, sorry for all the damage tho…