MILLERS FALLS — Three residents were displaced from the apartments above the Whistle Stop Cafe at 29 East Main St. after a three-alarm fire ripped through the mixed-use building on Wednesday morning, extensively damaging the ground-floor restaurant.
A tenant from the apartments above the restaurant was alerted to the fire when the smoke detector sounded at approximately 1:06 a.m. Wednesday, according to Turners Falls Fire Chief Todd Brunelle. When firefighters arrived, Brunelle said they saw an “extensive” fire that had spread to the building’s second floor and attic.
No injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Turners Falls Fire Department and the State Fire Marshall’s Office.
“Our first-arriving engine found heavy fire in the commercial occupancy at that address, known as the Whistle Stop Cafe. Crews were able to attack that fire in the restaurant portion and quickly knock that down and then move toward extinguishment of the fire extension,” Brunelle said. “The fire had extended through the wall, up through the second floor and into the attic. It was an extensive, arduous fire fight, putting the fire out in the attic, but with the help of our mutual aid partners, eventually the fire was put under control and eventually completely extinguished.”
In a combined effort involving 14 fire departments and districts, firefighters from Montague Center, Greenfield, Turners Falls, Erving, Sunderland, South Deerfield, Athol, Gill, Amherst, Northfield, Shutesbury, Orange, Shelburne Falls and Brattleboro, Vermont, responded to assist. It took approximately nine hours before the fire was fully extinguished at 10:40 a.m., according to Brunelle.
“Having enough people to get the job done safely is one of the biggest challenges, and then it’s just arduous work. We have to open up walls and ceilings; oftentimes, we’ll have to open up a roof, and we’ll have to search and ensure that we’ve got the fire out completely,” Brunelle said. “We get into an attic space that’s insulated — embers can be hidden in that insulation, and it’s really difficult to make sure we’ve fully extinguished it, and that there’s no hidden pockets of fire. Sometimes with these fires, where it seems like it’s taking a long time, we’re trying to be extra certain that all the fire has been extinguished and that the fire will not rekindle later.”
Brunelle reminded members of the public to check that their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are fully functioning, noting that in this case, fully operational smoke detectors were responsible for the residents having ample time to escape.
While Brunelle said the restaurant suffered extensive damage and would require “extensive repair and rehabilitation to be reopened,” Tammy Tolzdorf, who owns the 25-29 East Main St. building, said the restaurant’s neighboring business, Millers Pub, is expected to reopen later in the day on Wednesday.
Brunelle expressed gratitude for the extensive mutual aid response, explaining that the incident “would have turned out very differently” without the help of community partners. Montague Center Fire Chief Luke Hartnett echoed these remarks, explaining that his department only had two firefighters on duty at the time the fire was reported.
“Last night, there was only two members on duty, so for them to pull up with the amount of fire they had, with the aggressive attack on it … they just did a remarkable job,” Hartnett said. “Kudos to the men and women of all of our fire services around.”