Local fire departments responded to 91 Camden Street, The Breakwater Building, after a 7:50 a.m., Feb. 6, 9-1-1 call reporting light smoke coming from interior vents on the third floor. On arrival, responding Rockland units confirmed the light smoke; they were also alerted to a smoke detector alarming on the first floor. After a couple of hours at the scene, the believed cause would involve an electrical burning smell coming from one of those power sources that keeps the building in operation.
Those preliminary complaints – light smoke and smoke detector, along with a report of someone becoming overwhelmed by the smell of fumes – were enough to issue a first alarm assignment, drawing off-duty Rockland firefighters, and Rockport and Camden firefighters to the parking lot along Route 1 where many evacuated people waited in vehicles for the building to reopen.