Aunt’s Gins restaurant in Whitefield, seen here April 14, 2020, had a fire break out Saturday. Investigators determined the cause was accidental. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file Buy this Photo
WHITEFIELD — The fire that damaged the bar area and dining room of Aunt Gin’s restaurant was an accidental electrical fire, the state fire marshal’s office has found.
Early Saturday, firefighters from Whitefield and seven other communities responded to a report of a fire at the restaurant on Augusta Road. The restaurant had closed for the evening, and no one was on the property when the fire was reported.
Earlier this week, restaurant co-owner Wyatt Shorey said the restaurant would be closed for the foreseeable future, and some of its 20 employees were expected to go to work at Otto’s on the River, the Augusta restaurant Shorey and Steve Dumas own and operate on Water Street.
Officials from the Maine Office of State Fire Marshal were on the scene at 48 Augusta Road earlier this week to investigate. On Wednesday, Shannon Moss, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, released the marshal’s findings.
Aunt Gin’s, named for Dumas’s aunt Virginia Smith, opened in 2015. Shorey said the restaurant had its best month in three years in April.
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