UPDATE:

Boothbay Harbor Fire Chief Nick Upham described Beach Cove Waterfront Inn as a “total loss” following a Monday night fire. Boothbay Harbor was helped by seven other departments in battling the blaze which ignited around 8:23 p.m. on Lakeview Road. The seven fire departments assisting Boothbay Harbor were Boothbay, Southport, Edgecomb, Wiscasset, Bristol, Newcastle and Damariscotta. 

Once firefighters arrived, they fought the initial blaze for over two hours in bringing it under control. Upham reported the biggest challenge in fighting the blaze was keeping it from spreading to other buildings.

“The inn was a total loss when we got here. If we didn’t take care of business then we knew other residences would be next. A bunch of embers kept flying into the woods and could possibly ignite more fires on residents’ roof tops toward Logan Road,” he said.

Lakeview Road resident William Kemp’s home is almost directly across from the inn’s property. Kemp said he was not home at the time, but was trying to get through after first responders arrived. 

“All I can say is I'm very happy they were able to contain it. They did a really great job and ... I’m just happy they did such a great job and no one got hurt.”

Power was turned off while firefighters battled the blaze. Central Maine Power workers spent the next morning assessing the damage. CMP Communications Manager Catharine Hartnett reported severe damage to the nearby electrical system. Two thousand customers in Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor and Southport were without power by 10:10 p.m. Monday. The largest concentration of customers without power were on McFarland Point Drive, Lakeview Road and McKown Street.  

“We experienced significant infrastructure damage near the hotel. At this point, there are still about 136 customers without power,” Hartnett said. CMP estimated the earliest power could be restored to all customers would be 3 p.m.

Upham said a state fire marshal was due to arrive at the scene sometime Tuesday.

Resident Paul Lylle said he could not feel the heat from his house just up the road from the inn’s property, but had the wind not been relatively calm, he expected the fire would have burned through the trees across from his house putting his and more neighbors’ houses at risk.

“My wife looked out the kitchen window and screamed,” Lylle said watching CMP workers continue to put cable in the air. “She just saw the hotel completely engulfed. I didn't feel the heat from here, but down by my neighbors the heat was pretty intense ... It just seemed to go up really fast ... It was like hell.”

One of Lylle’s and Kemp’s neighbors who asked not to be named said they started watering down their house once they realized how bad the fire was. They said their house burned flat about seven years ago and they did not want to risk it happening again.

“It was intense. Everybody was helping each other though ... It was one of the fastest-moving fires I've ever seen. If this had been that southerly wind we've been having, this would all be gone,” the neighbor said motioning to the surrounding woods and about half a dozen homes. 

Beach Cove Waterfront Inn’s owner, Edgewater Plus, Inc., was not immediately available for comment. The total valuation for the three-acre property is $1,153,500 – $817,500 for the building and $336,000 for the land. 

Original post: A massive fire destroyed Beach Cove Waterfront Inn at 48 Lakeview Road, Boothbay Harbor Monday night, May 23.

Firefighters from surrounding towns responded to the fire which started around sundown and burned into the night. Smoke and flames could be seen from all around the harbor. Power was cut to surrounding areas and traffic was diverted from the area by police and sheriff’s departments.

More on the fire will be forthcoming.