At least 13 downtown Bangor residents were displaced Monday when their apartment units were damaged by water from the sprinkler system.
Bangor firefighters responded to reports of smoke and water coming from an apartment on the fourth floor of 35 Main St. at 2:25 p.m. on Monday, said Assistant Fire Chief Chandler Corriveau.
First responders discovered a fire in an apartment building on the fourth floor that was contained on the stove, but had spread to the nearby kitchen cabinets, Corriveau said. The sprinkler system activated and extinguished the fire before firefighters arrived.
The tenant who lives in the apartment where the fire began was not home at the time of the fire, Corriveau said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The sprinklers caused damage in 11 of the 13 apartments in the building, all of which are occupied, and the commercial space on the first floor, which holds the Salty Brick Market, Corriveau said. None of the tenants were staying in the building Monday night.
“The sprinkler system did exactly what it was supposed to do – it put the fire out,” Corriveau said. “If the sprinkler system hadn’t put the fire out, we would have used way more water trying to extinguish an apartment fire that had grown larger in size than just being on the stovetop.”
Firefighters tried to salvage and protect merchandise in the Salty Brick Market and protect it from water that was pouring down from the floors above, Corriveau said, but some items in the store were certainly damaged.
The American Red Cross was assisting the building residents and the building owner also enlisted a company to clean up the water on Monday, Corriveau said.
Firefighters closed a portion of Main Street from where the road intersects with Broad and Middle and Water streets from roughly 2:30 to 3:40 p.m. on Monday to address the fire and water damage.
