A downtown Bangor market is “a total loss” after water from a sprinkler system upstairs rained into the space, ruining both the products and potentially the space’s infrastructure.
The Salty Brick Market at 35 Main St. is closed until further notice after a stove fire in an apartment on the fourth floor of the building triggered the unit’s sprinkler system, which caused significant water damage to most of the property.
Though the sprinklers extinguished the fire before it could spread from the stove, water flowed into 11 of the 13 apartments in the building and the Salty Brick Market on the ground floor. Louie Morrison, who owns the building, estimated the sprinklers were running for roughly 30 minutes before firefighters turned them off.
“Thankfully all humans and animals in the building are safe and everyone got out, but the store is a total loss,” James Gallagher, owner of the Salty Brick Market, said. “All product, everything, is gone.”
Despite the damage, Gallagher said he plans to reopen the market, though he doesn’t know when or how much it will cost to repair the space and replace items. Gallagher did have insurance for the store, which will help.
Large fans were running in the market on Wednesday in an attempt to dry up the standing water and trash cans were placed throughout the space to catch the water still draining from the upper floors.
“I haven’t touched anything yet,” Gallagher said. “I needed time to understand what happened and what I’m going to do. No one knows what the next steps are.”
On Monday afternoon, Gallagher left the store just minutes before water began trickling down from the ceiling. He said he heard a fire alarm going off when he left, but assumed someone in an apartment upstairs burned toast. Just minutes later, a store cashier sent him a photo of water leaking from the ceiling.
Gallagher raced back and found first responders moving shelves of merchandise away from where the water was coming from the ceiling. He also saw tarps thrown over equipment and shelves in an attempt to protect them before he was ushered out by a firefighter.
Someone also smashed the glass back door to the market on Monday night, but Gallagher doesn’t believe the person got in or took anything.
“It was a Monday from hell,” he said.
Seven apartments needed to be gutted, but tenants have already moved back into the other six apartments, according to Morrison.
The city placarded the unit where the fire ignited — meaning it’s unfit for habitation — and it lost its Certificate of Occupancy, according to David Warren, spokesperson for the city.
Gallagher opened the Salty Brick Market in June 2022 after moving his other business of 13 years, Bangin’ Whoopie, to downtown Bangor. After the move, he noticed downtown didn’t have a place where residents and employees in the area could quickly pick up a few groceries or a snack.
The store offered grocery items, beer and wine, as well as a sandwich counter and salad bar. The store also offered a “hot bar” with rotating grab-and-go meal options.
Gallagher will likely throw away the food in the store this week and then assess the shelves in the space. After that, everything else will need to be removed from the area so the floors, walls and ceiling can be evaluated.
Gallagher hopes to save the wood floor, as it’s original to the building, but suspects it will need to be removed to clean up the water that seeped into it.
He hasn’t gone into the building’s basement, which he uses to store items from the Salty Brick Market and Bangin’ Whoopie, because he’s scared to see the damage. But, he said the basement “smells horrible.”
“My whole life, 13 years of business, is downstairs,” Gallagher said.
The basement also contains some items from his home. When he bought the home, built in 1875, Gallagher also acquired everything in it that belonged to the former owner.
“She was a high school teacher at Bangor High, so she kept everything,” Gallagher said. “There was the coolest stuff in there — every National Geographic you could think of — stacks of things. That’s all downstairs.”
In the coming weeks, Gallagher said he may open a grab-and-go lunch option, similar to the salad or hot bar the market offered, in Bangin’ Whoopie to cater to the people who work downtown and relied on the market for lunch every day.
“I need a routine,” Gallagher said. “I need to see the same faces every day to know that everything is going to be OK.”
Though Gallagher hopes to repair the commercial space and reopen the market, he isn’t opposed to moving the business to another downtown location if that turns out to be a better option.
“This didn’t knock us out, we’re just figuring out what to do next,” he said. “We haven’t given up on Bangor. It’s a work in progress and this is just a road block.”
