SOUTH PORTLAND — An electrical fire destroyed the former Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse near the Maine Mall on Monday afternoon, fire investigators said.
A passerby reported the fire in the vacant building at 264 Gorham Road shortly after 1 p.m., said Capt. Robb Couture, fire department spokesman. Scarborough, Portland and Cape Elizabeth firefighters provided assistance.
The blaze was under control by 3:30 p.m. and no one was injured, but the building appeared to be a total loss, Couture said.
An investigator from the state Fire Marshal’s Office assisted a department inspector in determining the cause, which was attributed to a problem with electrical wiring near the front entrance, Couture said.
The restaurant closed abruptly last June along with several other locations of the struggling Northeast chain, which failed to bounce back from a 2011 bankruptcy sale and restructuring. It was next door to the b.good and Olive Garden restaurants.
The building was valued at $1 million for property tax purposes, according to the city assessor’s records. It is co-owned by Charlie Brown’s Acquisition Corp. and Capitol BC Restaurants LLC of Iselin, New Jersey.
The 3-acre parcel, assessed at $1.8 million, is owned by Washington Baxter LLC of Bangor, which bought the land for $2.3 million in 2015, the assessor’s records show.
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