Shaw’s sprinkler shutdown under city scrutiny

BANGOR – As cleanup work continues at Shaw’s supermarket on Main Street after a devastating fire on Tuesday, city officials await answers as to why Bangor’s Fire Prevention Bureau was not notified that the store’s sprinkler system was deactivated during an expansion project at the supermarket.

The Bangor Fire Department’s dispatch center was informed of the shutdown, but it remains unclear who made the phone call, according to Sgt. Stu Jacobs, an investigator with the state Fire Marshal’s Office.

Shaw’s representatives or the sprinkler system contractor may have made the phone call, he said Thursday.

The building’s sprinklers were turned off at 9 a.m. Tuesday, the day of the fire, according to Shaw’s spokesman Terrence Donilon.

Strict guidelines are in place for businesses that want to deactivate their sprinkler systems temporarily and include the requirement that the city approve a “fire watch” plan submitted by the company, according to city Fire Inspector John Mickel. Such plans require that before a sprinkler system is deactivated, all construction materials be procured and that a designated person monitor the building for fire hazards, Mickel said.

Shaw’s should have submitted such a plan to the city, but didn’t, he said.

“Whether we would have approved that or not, I’m not sure,” Mickel said.

Donilon said his company followed all proper procedures in deactivating the sprinkler system.

“The appropriate person contacted both the dispatcher and the local fire station,” he said.

Hazardous activity within the building also must be limited, Mickel said, which includes welding, cited by fire officials as the cause of the 10 a.m. fire.

“Welding is a real hazard,” Mickel said. “You’re introducing into a building a danger that’s not usually there that’s been known to cause a lot of fires.”

Langford and Low Inc. of Portland is doing work on the property as part of construction that began in early August. A subcontractor for the company, however, performed the welding work, Jacobs said on Wednesday.

All of the store’s inventory was lost as a result of the fire ignited near a rear electrical room, the state fire official said Wednesday.

Approximately $2.5 million worth of merchandise was ruined, according to Bangor Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington on Thursday. He likened the property damage to a 1981 fire on Rice Street in Bangor that destroyed 5 acres of a warehouse complex.

All of the store’s product should be removed from the building by Saturday, with help from 40 Shaw’s associates who are helping to dispose of perishable items such as seafood and produce, Larry Laderbush, market director for Shaw’s Maine stores, said Thursday.

“All we want to do is get everything out of here as soon as possible,” he said.

The store offered a $5 off coupon in Thursday’s Bangor Daily News for customers who make a purchase of $50 or more at the Springer Drive and Ellsworth stores. The coupon will be offered in the paper again on Saturday.

The Main Street location may be open by the end of next week, Laderbush said.