Fire in downtown apartment building forces closure of Congress Street
The improper disposal of cigarettes caused the fire in the basement of the Lafayette Townhouse apartments Sunday morning, the deputy fire chief says.
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A fire that started in the basement of the Lafayette Townhouse apartments Sunday morning could have been a lot worse if the building’s fire alarm system had not worked so well, a spokesman for the Portland Fire Department said.
Deputy Fire Chief Shawn Neat attributed the cause of the fire to the improper disposal of cigarettes, which he said had been inadvertently tossed into an exterior garden planter. The cigarette butts started a fire that burned through into the basement area, triggering smoke detectors and the Lafayette’s smoke alarm system, which led to an all-hands fire call around 11 a.m.