Fire levels Suffolk Downs building

REVERE – Officials reported neither humans nor horses were injured in a three-alarm fire at the Suffolk Downs track kitchen Tuesday evening, and officials said the upcoming racing season and casino bid for the site should be unaffected by the blaze.”Obviously the timing of it isn’t that great, as we are in competition now for the gaming license,” Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo said Tuesday night. “But these things happen, and we’re fortunate the fire department responded the way they did and that we didn’t experience further damage.”The fire started at approximately 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.Revere Fire Deputy Chief Glen Rich said a firefighter on a detail at the track called in a fire that had started in the track kitchen. (Whenever there are horses in the nearby barns and stables, there is a firefighter on a detail at the site, Rich explained).The fire went to a second alarm at approximately 5:40 p.m., and a large plume of brown smoke could be seen when arriving at the scene about 10 minutes later.That plume gradually turned black as fire equipment from surrounding communities – first Winthrop and then Malden and Lynn – arrived at the scene, and a third alarm was rung.It was difficult to get near the blaze. The main gate to the stable area was closed to onlookers, reporters and news crews, and the site of the blaze was at the end of a long lane lined with stables. But glimpses of flames charring the roof of a single-story shed-like structure could be seen over the fence, and Revere Police regularly ordered onlookers to move cars parked along roads at the perimeter of the property.”I was in tears as I saw it … you just pray,” said Pattie Crane, a horse trainer at the racetrack, who was among the many onlookers gathered around the racetrack property.Employees such as Crane evacuated horses from stables near the kitchen building as a precaution, and Suffolk Downs Chief Operating Officer Chip Tuttle said in a statement issued around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday that no horses or workers were injured. He also said the racetrack anticipated opening this Saturday as planned.Rizzo said it was unclear whether anybody was in the kitchen or in the adjoining dining area at the time the fire started. Firefighters were just entering the building to investigate around 8:30 p.m. and remained at the scene as of deadline.”We don’t know the cause, we’re still putting out hot spots,” Rich said.Rizzo said the building was a complete loss. But he praised firefighters for containing the blaze to the single structure. Rizzo recalled a much more devastating fire in the early 1980s in the same area.”Rather than lose 25 to 30 buildings like they did back then, firefighters were able to contain it to just one building,” Rizzo said. “It’s a real testament to the training of the fire department and the equipment improvements in the past decades.”Rizzo also said the fire would have no impact “whatsoever” on the casino proposal.”This isn’t the way we wanted the barns to come down, but this whole area would have to be razed to allow for the whole casino anyways,” Rizzo said.But Rizzo mentioned one small part of the casino proposal was lost: he said a “beautiful” three-dimensional, roughly 10-by-10-foot model of the proposed Mohegan Sun casino was in the dining area of the kitchen.But he said that mattered little.”In the big picture, nobody was hurt, the property damage was contained, the horses were all safe,” Rizzo said. “I think under the circumstances it was a terrific outcome.”Thor Jourgensen contributed reporting to this story.