Cause of fire undetermined
Smoke fills Water Street store and basement
Monday’s fire in a crawl space below Kathy’s Gifts and Collectibles at 42 Water Street caused smoke damage to merchandise, but the building was unharmed, according to store’s owner Kathy Breen.
Firefighters were able to bring the situation under control fairly quickly once they located the origin of the smoke that filled the store and basement.
Breen began to smell smoke in the morning, “but you know how it is, I thought I might be imagining things,” she said.
When she realized it wasn’t her imagination, she went to the basement of the building and found it filled with smoke.
The fire department responded to Breen’s call at 1:19 p.m.
Deputy fire chief Ben Cleveland said firefighters could not determine the cause of the fire, noting the blaze was in the crawl space under the building.
After extinguishing the blaze, the fire department ventilated the building.
Breen remarked that vandalism has been prevalent in downtown Digby, and wooden stairs at the front of her store were overturned this past winter.
She added that she has heard there are sometimes people in the fenced vacant lot beside her store, but has never seen anyone there.
