RUMFORD – The cause of a fire that destroyed a Waldo Street florist shop early Tuesday morning will remain undetermined, according to the State Fire Marshal’s Office and investigating Rumford fire Lt. Keith Bickford.

Bickford said they believe the fire began in one of two Flowers, Etc. storage rooms that contained walk-in coolers. Due to extensive damage, a cause couldn’t be determined.

No one was injured and no one was inside at 311 Waldo St. when fire broke out sometime before 4:50 a.m., State Fire Marshal fire investigator Chris Stanford said at the scene Tuesday morning.

Fire gutted the single-story brown building, which Flowers, Etc. owner Gloria Morton bought for $46,000 last August, according to town records. It was insured, and she lost everything, she said Tuesday afternoon.

“All I found were smoky frozen roses, four buckets, six vases and a butterfly,” said Morton, her face flushed red from crying.

Deputy fire Chief Scott Holmes and Bickford helped Morton and her friends Stephanie Sterling and Christine Hersom retrieve several fire-blackened, frozen yellow and red roses, and two plants in small baskets from a destroyed cooler.

According to town records, the structure was built in 1915.

Morton, also a NewPage Corp. employee, bought Flowers, Etc. in 2004 when it was located at 204 Waldo St. Following four months of renovations, she relocated it to 311 Waldo St. and reopened in November.

“I’m going to take a couple days off and regroup,” she said. “Then, I will consider going into the old place up street where I just left, but, it will take some thinking.”

The fire

Stanford said when a witness, Rob White of Mexico, left the nearby Road Hog Express taxi stand at 4:50 a.m. he saw heavy smoke coming out of the building’s eaves. Shortly after that, fire erupted from the windows.

Mexico, Rumford, Rumford’s call force, Dixfield, Andover and Peru firefighters all responded to the fire.

Rumford and Mexico crews arrived within two minutes to find fire in the roof.

“Everything was a sheet of fire,” Chief John Woulfe said Tuesday morning.

“There was heavy smoke, and we made entry, but there was too much fire above their heads, so they were ordered out. Then, just after they got out, the fire flashed over and blew through the roof.”

Knowing that the florist shop couldn’t be saved, their initial concern was a three-story apartment building beside it at 313 Waldo St. People were evacuated from the apartment building, and one of the first water lines was positioned in the alley to protect it, Woulfe said.

The apartment building sustained melted vinyl siding damage on a third-story wall.

Siding on a building across the street also melted.

Firefighters also had to contend simultaneously with alarms at the Chisholm School and 324 Hancock St., and a possible chimney fire at a Beliveau Road home.

The Chisholm School alarm was believed to have been caused by a power surge, Holmes said.

Power to the area was cut initially as firefighters battled the blaze, but was later restored, as CMP isolated the service to the shop.

After Stanford and three other fire investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s office examined the scene, a crane was brought in and knocked the gutted shell down.

Years ago, the building was Chico’s Tavern, then, it became a seafood restaurant, and another restaurant after that, Bickford said. It also housed several other small businesses.