Edgewood Yacht Club Fire Started Electrically

The answer to the question of what started the Jan. 12 fire at the Edgewood Yacht Club was scattered throughout the wreckage: lumps of copper that had become molten and then cooled.

The copper was from wires that had arced, said Capt. Kevin Morris of the Cranston Fire Department, and it's a telltale sign that an "electrical event" had occurred.

Morris, also the city's fire marshal, along with the city's electrical inspector and officials from the state Fire Marshal's Office, looked through the charred remnants of the yacht club this past weekend.

"The demolition company allowed us onto the site," Morris said. "We took a number of pieces of electrical circuits."

What they found were portions of copper wire that had melted into lumpy masses. The evidence was indicative in a lot of places.

"It's a telltale sign that the wires arced," Morris said.

Morris will complete his report on the fire investigation in the coming days. One thing the report won't clarify is why there was an electrical event in the first place. It could have been caused by any number of things, including a lightning strike. That scenario is probable, Morris said, because lightning was seen that night by firefighters battling the blaze.

Lightning was also seen from a man who happened to be awake in East Providence and had a clear shot across the bay. 

"We know there was lightning that night," Morris said. But the short could have been a random malfunction so the cause will never be known.

The fire itself could not have caused the copper in the wires to melt, Morris said. 

"Not to this magnitude," Morris said. 

The loss of the clubhouse was a blow to the city. The building was on the National Register of Historic places and contained numerous artifacts, pictures, trophies and memories. 

The fire didn't destroy the club's spirit. The sailing program will go on as scheduled this summer, the docks were left intact and the club is actively raising money and making plans to rebuild.