PEABODY — An early-morning fire on Main Street Wednesday drove 33 residents out of their homes after their building, which houses the Breaking Grounds Café, sustained smoke and water damage, fire officials said.
Firefighters responded to 65 Main St. at 7:03 a.m. Wednesday for a report of a fire on the third floor of the building. While the blaze was contained to just one unit and knocked down quickly, water damage forced power in the building to be shut off, said fire Capt. Russ Lewis. No one was injured in the blaze, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation, Lewis said.
The third-floor apartment where the fire broke out sits directly above Breaking Grounds, where Northeast Arc provides employment training to people with disabilities or autism, according to the nonprofit’s website. Northeast Arc Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Tim Brown said Wednesday that the coffee shop will be closed for at least a week as damages to the store are assessed.
“Right now we’re in the waiting game,” he said.
Brown said the espresso machine, drip coffee-maker, and refrigeration systems likely sustained heavy damage due to their location at the front of the store. Should those pieces of equipment be non-operational, Breaking Grounds “would not be able to operate as a coffee shop” until it acquired replacements.
But, Brown said, he was unsure how long it would take to order and receive replacements.
The full extent of the damages will not be determined until power is restored in the building and Breaking Grounds can test its equipment.
The fire was a “completely unfortunate incident,” Brown said, and the organization was thankful everyone was able to make it out of the building unharmed. The people who live above the coffee shop are “part of our family,” he added.
Northeast Arc will have to replace the ceiling and any of the equipment that was damaged in the store before Breaking Grounds can reopen, Brown said, adding that there was a “total loss” of all the store’s food products.
Brown said updates will be posted to social media as they are available.
