New Year’s Eve blaze temporarily shutters Durand Coffee, displaces tenants

A New Year's Eve fire has temporarily displaced tenants in two apartments and shuttered the popular Durand Coffee shop for at least a week.

But building and cafe owner Christopher Redmond said it could have been so much worse" if not for the quick response of firefighters.

Honestly, we were amazed," he said a day after firefighters were forced to cut into the roof of the Caroline Street building to douse a stubborn electrical blaze that downtown residents watched for hours.

They did such a good job of keeping it contained. It could have been so much worse."

Assistant deputy fire chief Steve Welton said the fire is thought to have been an electrical issue." No one was injured but he said damages would likely exceed $250,000.

Redmond said much of that damage was to the roof of the sprawling building, which includes the cafe, attached bottle shop and two residential apartments, one of which shared a wall with the bottle shop.

He said one apartment was largely unaffected other than from the smell of smoke and the tenant will soon return. The other unit will need repairs, but Redmond said the tenant has found a place to stay in the meantime.

Everyone should be back, hopefully in a (short) period of time," he said, adding a restoration company is already eyeballing the building.

The cafe's beer and wine bottle shop, which opened during the pandemic, sustained some fire damage and it's not clear when it will be ready to reopen.

The coffee shop, however, is mostly intact" aside from smoke damage. Redmond said his hope is to be able to reopen in about a week.

Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at for The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com