LAKEPORT, Calif. – Fire officials and police remained on scene throughout the day on Friday, continuing the investigation into an early morning fire that damaged a historic downtown building and destroyed one of the businesses housed within it.
The Lunas building, located at the corner of Third and Main streets, sustained major damage in the fire, which was reported shortly before 6 a.m., according to Lakeport Fire Chief Ken Wells.
The interior of the building’s bottom story, occupied by the Penny Lane Emporium, was a total loss, said Wells. He didn’t have a full cost estimate of the damages.
Firefighter Dan Copas of Lakeport Fire Protection District, the lead investigator on the fire, continued digging through the charred ruins on Friday afternoon, searching for clues as to the ultimate cause.
The building’s structural integrity did not appear to have been affected by the fire. Barricades and police crime scene tape surrounded the building, and a portion of Third Street was closed while work continued on the investigation.
Copas said that the point of origin was determined to be at the front of the store.
It will take at least a few days to narrow in on a final cause, Copas said.
“It’s going to be a process until we get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Lakeport Fire won’t bring in the arson task force unless something criminal is found, Copas explained.
Upstairs, where attorney judicial candidate Michael Lunas and the firm of Feeney & Feeney have their offices, the damage was limited to smoke and heat, Wells said.
Servpro was conducting cleanup upstairs, said Wells, and on the first floor workers began boarding up the blown out front windows on the building late Friday afternoon.
Lunas, whose mother and uncle own the historic building, was still surveying the damage on Friday afternoon after removing his personal items from the top floor earlier in the day.
He said there was some fire damage on the left front side of the building’s second floor. The fire had climbed up to the second floor and damaged a room behind the one facing Main Street.
“It could have been way worse than it was upstairs,” said Lunas, crediting firefighters for doing “an amazing job” of stopping the fire from advancing further.
Nobody was present in the building at the time of the fire, and no injuries were reported. “That’s the good news,” said Lunas.
Wells said once the cause and origin is determined, then they will call in experts to assist with fine tuning that final conclusion.
Lakeport Police maintained a presence at the building throughout the day, with Det. Bob Jordan assisting with the investigation and Chief Brad Rasmussen also on scene.
“The chain of evidence is really important in these types types of cases,” Wells said.
Early in the day, officials had received reports of a vehicle throwing a Molotov cocktail through Penny Lane Emporium’s front window.
However, Wells and Rasmussen both said that they were able to discount that report.
“We have no indication at this time that it was even a malicious act,” said Wells.
Rasmussen said the vehicle reportedly involved was found and the driver identified. He said the driver was passing by the fire and it’s believed that at that point the front window broke as a result of the fire burning inside the building.
“The fire could have been smoldering in that building for hours,” said Wells.
When the fire reaches the point of “free burning,” it takes up as much fuel and oxygen as it can, and can result in explosions and breaking windows, Wells explained.
Lunas said he and the other upstairs tenants will be relocating temporarily while repairs take place on the building.
The grand old building dates to 1876, and survived the 1906 earthquake, which had reduced some of downtown Lakeport’s buildings to rubble.
“This is quite a building,” Lunas said. “It’s been through it all.”
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