The gold-domed Massachusetts State House in Beacon Hill remained closed on Wednesday, following an electrical fire in the basement of the building Tuesday afternoon that sparked the evacuation of state officials, staff members and members of the public.
State police said Wednesday that a joint investigation determined the cause of the fire to be accidental, resulting from electrical faults in two lines that run from an electrical vault near a guard shack to a pull bock in the sub-basement of the State House annex building. There is no evidence to suggest the fire was intentionally set.
The Superintendent of the State House said that the decision to keep the building closed Wednesday was out of an abundance of caution, while the investigation into Tuesday's fire is wrapped up. With power fully restored, the building will safely reopen Thursday, Superintendent Tammy Kraus said.
"We are working with Eversource to identify the scope of repair and create a work plan that will include upgrading the transformer electrical lines. Air scrubbers will continue to operate throughout the evening and potentially tomorrow to absorb residual odors. We are grateful for all parties involved for their hard work to ensure the safety of all officials, staff and visitors and to quickly and safely restore access to the building," Kraus said in a statement.
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According to the Boston Fire Commissioner, when the fire alarms went off Tuesday afternoon at around 2 p.m., the building was evacuated, and firefighters found smoke coming from a vault area in the basement of the State House.
“Initially there was some skepticism,” Secretary of State William Galvin said, especially since a fire alarm had been pulled earlier in the day by a child.
State police said the joint investigation determined that the earlier fire alarm activation was an accident, as it was mistakenly triggered by two visitors who thought it was a mechanism to open a door.
Fire investigators determined it was high voltage wires that feed into a transformer that were burning. The transformer itself did not catch on fire.
Because of where the fire was in the building and the difficult process of venting the smoke from that fire, it took hours for crews to even make the building safe for lawmakers and their staff to go back inside to collect their belongings.
“Very difficult," Commissioner Paul Burke of the Boston Fire Department said. "It was in a tunnel and the smoke, and the quality of the air was the problem, the toxins in that burning material were very dangerous. They have readings in the Carbon Monoxide an average reading might be 10, 11 parts per million, this was in the thousands, so it’s not sustainable for a human to not be on oxygen, on air that we have the firefighters on.”
No one was injured in the fire.
The building serves as the country’s second oldest active state house and officially opened back in 1798. Community members learning about the fire were immediately alarmed at the possibility of any damage to the historical structure.
“Gosh if something happened to that building we would lose such a landmark,” said Walter Beebe-Center. The owner of Essex Restoration said he helped with restoration to the State House Library back in 2015.
He offered some insight into what needs to be done to minimize any damage from the fire saying, “The first step is to make sure that whatever caused this fire, has been addressed, so that it wont happen again. The next step is to do a survey of the surrounding spaces.”
While the Boston Fire Department is still currently investigating the extent of the damage, Galvin -- who works inside -- is confident in the building’s condition saying, “The condition of the building is excellent. I mean, the building has been regularly renovated. It's a magnificent building.”
