Nov. 25--Fire investigators have scheduled 70 interviews for today in an effort to determine what started the massive fire that destroyed a hotel under construction on Great Diamond Island early Saturday morning.
The fire broke out at the Inn at Diamond Cove at about 4:25 a.m. and was spotted by a Casco Bay Bridge tender. Firefighters had the blaze under control by 10 a.m.
State Fire Marshal Joe Thomas said the agency has pulled in investigators from southern and central Maine and is being assisted by three investigators with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Thomas said interviews will be the foundation of the investigation, since little remains of the building.
"Especially with the winds we've had these past few days, there was no intention of putting anyone in there to dig a fire scene," he said. "There's just four walls standing."
Investigators also will interview firefighters to get a sense of what sections of the building were burning the most, to try to narrow down what area the fire started in.
Thomas said that buildings under construction or renovation have more possible ignition sources than other structures, such as heaters used to keep materials and sections of the building warm.
The department's fireboat and 20 firefighters were sent to the scene. They arrived at the island about 4:50 a.m. to find the three-story brick structure engulfed in flames. The building's roof collapsed during the fire.
Nobody was injured.
The building was being developed by Diamond Cove LLC into a full-service hotel and condominium complex with a variety of room types at the Fort McKinley site, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, a city official said. The construction was nearing completion.
Fort McKinley was built at the turn of the 20th century, designed to protect Portland Harbor during the Spanish-American War. It closed after World War II and was redeveloped in the 1990s into the upscale Diamond Cove community.
The building, the last of the undeveloped structures on the site, was undergoing renovation and due to open as the Inn at Diamond Cove next year. Originally the hotel project was opposed by some homeowners, who went to court to try to block it.
David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
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