LEWISTON – Building owner Travis Soule blamed a mechanical failure for Sunday’s lack of heat at 153-155 Bartlett St.

Soule said the furnace was repaired in the building later Sunday, heat was restored and he was having the building’s heating oil tank filled.

“I hired a new manager, and he started on Friday,” Soule said. “He put in just enough oil in the tank to make it through the weekend. But now that the furnace is fixed, we’re filling up the tank. And not just at this building, but all of the buildings I own on Bartlett Street.”

On Sunday, tenant Nasra Ali, 17, said Soule put a little oil in the tank, and it worked for about 30 minutes, but then the furnace went off again.

Soule’s tenants told the Sun Journal earlier this month that they’d complained about the building’s heat. He was fined $110 by the city for not heating the building while the outside temperatures dropped below zero.

Soule owns three other buildings on the street – at 141, 155 and 166 Bartlett St. The city has had complaints of no heat from tenants at each of those buildings this winter.

Tenants at the 155 Bartlett St. address complained of no heat again Sunday, as temperatures dropped below zero. Soule said a line between the building’s heating oil tank and its furnace had become damaged, and he hired someone to repair it.

“He supposedly warned the tenants what would be happening and had the heat turned back on, but we don’t know what was said,” Lewiston Code Enforcement Officer Gil Arsenault said. “But we did see that there was very little oil in the tank to speak of, and we warned Travis that it needed oil. He said he’d stay on top of it.”

Soule said he directed his staff to fill those tanks on Monday.

There were no lights on in the apartments at 155 Barlett St. on Monday night.

“It’s a good thing we didn’t fill the tanks before the problem was fixed,” Soule said Monday. “If we had, we would have lost the entire tank.”

Soule said he is in the process of selling the building, but would not disclose the buyer’s identity.