CONNOR TOWNSHIP – High winds fanned the flames Monday night that destroyed a welding and fabrication shop, causing an estimated $290,000 loss for Robert Blaisdell.

The building at 1107 Madawaska Road was in flames when firefighters arrived from the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department and the Loring Fire Department, Caribou Fire Chief Roy Woods said Tuesday morning.

Woods said the wind and cold hampered firefighters’ efforts. The temperature hovered around zero degrees Fahrenheit during the effort.

“The loss was just tremendous,” Blaisdell said Tuesday morning. “I still don’t understand what happened.

“We are all safe and nobody was hurt,” he said. “We will go on from here.”

He didn’t know whether he would rebuild the facility where he and two employees constructed farm equipment. They did a lot of work for Thomas Equipment Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of farm equipment, he said.

The loss includes $115,000 for the 11/2-story building, $175,000 worth of welding and fabrication equipment, $50,000 of stock, $25,000 for two finished pieces of farm equipment and $15,000 for his personal pickup truck that was inside the building.

He said he could not put a value on personal family possessions stored in a second-story storage room. The second floor also included the business office.

Woods said the alarm came in at 4:15 p.m. Sixteen firefighters used two trucks to fight the fire for about 90 minutes. Woods suspected that an electrical problem may have started the fire, but, he said, they may never know.

There had been no one in the shop for more than an hour when the fire was noticed. The main work area of the business, the first floor, was about 40 by 60 feet long, Woods said.

“The wind and cold temperatures didn’t help us, for sure,” Woods said. “It’s also quite a ways for us to get there.”

Blaisdell said there was a lot of equipment, tools and materials in the structure. He has been in the business full time for three years, and worked at the fabrication business part time for three years before that. He and his now-deceased father-in-law started the business.

He said the majority of the work his company did – manufacturing cultivators, rock pickers, fertilizer truck bodies and other equipment – was for the Canadian farm equipment company.

Blaisdell said he would wait to see how the insurance coverage would come in before making a decision on rebuilding. He said he wants to rebuild the facility.

He said the storage facility included a lot of personal possessions, things that can’t be replaced.

The family’s four-wheeler ATV and snowmobile also were stored in the facility.