Boarded up windows at Gordon's Fine Wines & Liquors at 31 Austin St. in Newton
By Jonathan Dame
Posted Jul. 18, 2016 at 11:39 am Updated Jul 19, 2016 at 10:30 AM
Three-alarm fire overnight at Gordon's liquor store in Newtonville
The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, but does not appear to be suspicious, according to a spokesperson
Firefighters battled a three-alarm blaze in the basement of Gordon’s Fine Wines & Liquors on Austin Street in Newtonville early Monday morning.
A person reported the rear of the building was emitting smoke at 1:47 a.m. Newton and Boston firefighters knocked down the fire around 3 a.m.
“It went to three alarms mostly because that is a really tough building to have a fire in. All masonry on the outside, not a lot of windows, it was in the basement,” said Newton Fire spokesperson Lt. Eric Fricke. “Just real tough access problems.”
The liquor store, which also has locations in Watertown, Waltham and Boston, shares a building with Star Market. But Fricke said the grocery store sustained no damage.
Products contaminated by soot and smoke might need to be tossed out. Fricke said it took three or four hours to ventilate the building.
“No real structural damage … the bulk of the damage estimate is going to be the inventory replacement number,” Fricke said.
A Newton health inspector who visited the site Monday wrote that all bottles and food on the sales floor were "covered with soot," with the entire store smelling strongly of fire, according to a copy of the report. Boxes in the basement sustained smoke and water damage, the report says.
The city is requiring the store to dispose of all food and soda, while the inspector wrote the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has authority over the alcohol.
The health inspector's report notes that bottles in the walk-in refrigerator were not covered in soot like the rest of the store.
One Newton firefighter made a brief visit to a hospital with minor injuries, but later returned to the scene, according to Fricke.
Firefighters from surrounding communities covered Newton fire stations during the fire, while Boston sent a crew to the scene.
The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, but does not appear to be suspicious, according to Fricke.
The fire’s location in the basement frustrated firefighting efforts.
“It was tough for our guys to make it down a very narrow staircase through the heat and the smoke and the flames coming up from the basement,” Fricke said.