LEBANON — An early morning fire rendered one of three office buildings in Wheeler Professional Park on Route 10 “a total loss.”
“A property maintenance company that was doing work in the area” reported the fire at approximately 4:25 a.m. on Wednesday and firefighters responded in minutes, Lebanon Fire Department Chief James Wheatley said at the scene at 1 Oak Ridge Road later Wednesday morning.
Building 2 of Wheeler Professional Park, which sits just on the Hanover town line, was “fully involved” by the time firefighters arrived.
“It had a pretty good head start,” Wheatley said.
The situation quickly escalated to second-alarm status, and fire departments from Enfield, Plainfield and Canaan arrived to cover Lebanon stations.
Hanover, Hartford and Windsor fire departments assisted Lebanon firefighters as they worked to contain the flames in a “defensive operation,” meaning there was too much fire and too much structural instability for firefighters to make entry into the building.
“We were under control in about 40 minutes,” Wheatley said.
Though the building was destroyed, no one was injured and no other buildings were damaged, he said.
The building had no sprinklers or fire alarms, Wheatley said. The cause of the fire is undetermined and is under investigation by the Lebanon Fire Department.
“It’s nothing suspicious,” he said. “It’s going to take a little bit before we come up with anything because of the extent of the damage.”
The building destroyed in the flames, Building 2, was 7,532 square feet. The other two buildings in Wheeler Professional Park are of similar size. The park as a whole is assessed at $2.1 million, according to city property records.
The Wheeler Park Professional directory lists the following businesses associated with Building 2: Dr. Alvarenga, Hodgdon, Eco Light, Inc., Wagner Law PLLC, New Hope North LLC, CSN/DCI and the Richards Group. Wagner Law moved out of the office park in 2019 and is now located on Hanover Street.
Mike Squires, IT and maintenance manager at the Richards Group, an insurance agency, was there about five hours after the blaze to assess the damage. He declined to comment.
Jeremy Katz, manager of Wheeler Park for 17 years, reached by phone declined to comment, saying, “I’m glad that everyone’s OK.”
Sarah True, a resident on Oak Ridge Road for 11 years, was at the fire scene at around 9 a.m. with her 4-year-old son, “who’s very curious about this sort of thing.” They often use the access ramps to the Wheeler buildings for bike riding.
True said she had gotten a “notice that the road was closed for a fire” at about 6 a.m.
By 8 a.m., her husband was able to get out “and send us a message just saying where the fire was and that there was smoke still coming out but that traffic was allowed through there,” said True.
She said she hoped the damage was limited.
“We do care about our neighbors, even though this is the commercial park; this is not our residential neighbors,” True said. “They’re still our neighbors.”
CLARIFICATION: The office of Wagner Law PLLC moved out of the Wheeler Professional Park on Oak Ridge Road in Lebanon in 2019. It is now located at 24 Hanover Street, Suite 8. A previous version of this story included an outdated directory for the building.
