Investigators closing in on fire cause Officials believe blaze at Bangor Masonic building not intentionally set

BANGOR – Fire investigators are “very close” to determining what started the devastating fire that destroyed one of the city’s most historic buildings last week, while the building’s owners and occupants began the task of moving on.

Bangor firefighters on Monday were still extinguishing hot spots that continued to smolder within the huge pile of rubble that was the 134-year-old Masonic Building on Main Street.

The building was destroyed by a fire that began last Thursday, and with concerns about the stability of the shell of the building, officials called in a wrecking ball Friday night to take the rest of it down.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we continued to have hot spots there for several days or even weeks,” said Bangor Assistant Fire Chief Rick Cheverie.

Meanwhile, officials from the Bangor Masonic Temple Association, which owned the five-story brick building, and officials from the various Masonic lodges that called the building home were searching for alternative meeting places.

With its work at the scene about done, the Bangor Fire Department expected to turn the remains of the building back to the Bangor Masonic Temple Association on Monday afternoon.

“We still obviously will be responding to any further problems at the site, but by turning the building back to them, they can start the process of debris removal,” Cheverie said. “We still have a little work to do regarding the cause of the fire and we plan to be present when the debris removal process begins. What we may want to do is take a closer look at a couple of areas inside.”

Cheverie would not comment on what might have started the fire but said officials did not believe it was intentionally set.

Firefighters were on the scene most of the weekend and Main Street did not reopen until late Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, a 14-year-old boy was arrested by police after he allegedly spied a ceremonial sword among the rubble and tried to take it home.

A witness saw the boy and phoned police, who caught up with him just a short distance away. The boy told police he didn’t think he had done anything wrong because the sword was just lying around in the rubble.

Police noted that the public needed to stay away from the rubble and heed the yellow caution tape designed to keep people away.

“That tape is there for a reason,” said Bangor Police Sgt. James Owens.

Cheverie said that despite the enormous amount of devastation, the owners may be able to salvage some things from the remains of the building.

“I think if they get an expert in there with the right equipment, like a cherry picker, they may be able to find some things,” he said. “I heard some reports that there were a few photographs that were lying around virtually untouched. You never know with fire – it can destroy one thing and bypass another. You know, it wasn’t such a hot fire – it smoldered but it didn’t burn super hot – and I understand that they had a lot of metal objects in there, so I think maybe we could be optimistic that they may find some things that can be saved.”

On Monday, Royce Wheeler, past master of the St. Andrew’s Lodge and Scottish Rite leader, said those who run the Masonic Learning Center, which provides free tutoring for children with dyslexia, were busy searching for space to continue their work.

“We’ve had lots of offers for space and I think we have a core group going out tomorrow to start looking at some space to see what we can use,” said Wheeler.

The center will be looking for temporary headquarters to get it through the spring semester and its five-week summer session, he said.

“Right now, they are trying to figure out how to re-create the paperwork because obviously we lost everything,” he said.

The lodges are probably going to rely on other lodge chapters in the area for temporary meeting space, he said.