AUBURN – The Village Inn will rise again, says owner Normand Vallee.

“But just what form, whether we’ll knock it down and start from scratch or whether we just rebuild from what’s there, that’s still percolating,” Vallee said Friday.

The popular High Street seafood restaurant was destroyed by fire in April. Vallee said he met with engineers and architects this week to discuss rebuilding.

“There are just so many new building-code rules and regulations, I’m not sure where we’re going yet,” Vallee said. “But we are enthusiastic about coming back.”

The Village Inn has been an Auburn staple for 43 years. Vallee took over the old Eddy’s Diner in 1964. With his sons, he operates a second Village Inn in Old Orchard Beach.

“We get hundreds of phone calls from people asking when we’ll be back, and they’ve all heard different things,” Vallee said. “Some said we’re building someplace else or giving up, but that’s not the case. All we want to do is get going and get our customers back in there.”

Accidental fire

Fire Prevention Officer Gary Simard said the blaze began about 10:15 p.m. April 25 in the back of the restaurant, near the ice machines. The restaurant had security cameras in the dining room that recorded video of smoke as it slowly covered the restaurant’s interior.

The fire was eventually called in after 12:30 a.m. when a passer-by noticed flames coming from the roof.

“So we were able to watch two hours’ worth of tape of this fire growing and growing,” Simard said. “If they had smoke alarms tied into their alarm system, this fire would have ended up only being a smudge on the ground.”

Vallee said the building did have a sprinkler system for the kitchen, but the fire didn’t start there.

The blaze has been ruled accidental, but no cause has been determined, Simard said.

“It could have been smoking, it could have been electrical or it could have been caused by the ice-making unit,” he said.

Simard said private insurance adjusters have taken the ice machine and are testing it to see if it caused the blaze.