Chief: Abandoned Lynn bakery fire is suspicious

LYNN-Balls of fire engulfed the abandoned Nissen bakery on Brookline Street shortly before 6 p.m. Monday in a blaze firefighters called suspicious.Smoke and flames from the inferno were so intense that MBTA halted commuter rail service between Lynn and Salem and bussed passengers between stations. The commuter rail tracks lay directly behind the building.”The fire is definitely of suspicious origin,” District Fire Chief Bill Curran said of the two-alarm blaze at 114 Brookline St.Flames could be seen from nearby Chatham Street when firefighters arrived, while smoke was visible and could be smelled from Lewis Street n nearly half of a mile away.No firefighters were injured in the blaze, which put them to work for over four hours.Firefighters were just beginning to search the abandoned building for any people that might have been inside at the time, but there was no clear indication that anyone was.Investigators questioned several railroad workers who noticed questionable behavior in and around the Nissen property over the past two years, including a small outside fire that was lit sometime last week.A man who patrols the tracks for the MBTA told Lynn Arson Investigator Lt. Dave Legere that last Saturday a train plowed through a small fire that someone set on the tracks at about 60 mph. The worker said he put out the small fire himself and radioed the incident to a control center, but later found out that no one from the center called the fire department.”Why didn’t anyone call the Lynn fire department?” Legere asked the man.Lynn Police were asking its officers Monday night if anyone remembered responding to the area behind the Nissen building to deal with vandals.”I don’t think it was accidental,” Legere said. “It could be either homeless or vandals.”Legere said the building’s owner, Dave Potter, told him the structure was scheduled for demolition “any day now.”Chief Curran said firefighters fought the flames from a “defensive mode” because the building was already fully engulfed when firefighters arrived at about 5:50 p.m.Heavy fire was knocked down by 8 p.m., but small flames were still visible for at least 45 minutes after that.More than 50 percent of the building’s roof collapsed, Legere said.Jim Blaney has lived on Brookline Street for 28 years and can still remember buying pastries from Nissen.”They had a little thrift store where you could buy pastries and stuff. It was awesome,” Blaney said. “You used to smell the bread baking.”Blaney said the building, which is about 150 feet long and 100 feet wide, had been abandoned for over 20 years and the property was slated to become a site for 150 condominiums.Mutual aid from several surrounding communities was used to man the fire stations around the city.