📰BIDDEFORD | Building Fire at Biddeford Firestation

February 13, 2026, According to the Biddeford Fire Department, at "approximately 03:05am on the morning of February 7th, one of the on-duty Biddeford Fire Department members smelled smoke on the 2nd floor area of the Central Fire Station. During the investigation for the source of the smoke, the member found a small fire inside the clean kitchen towel stainless steel bin in the kitchen. The fire was quickly extinguished using water from the kitchen sink and a fire extinguisher. From the time the smoke was smelled, and the source was discovered was less than one minute. And during this time a smoke detector and fire alarm system for the building activated. The burned material and stainless-steel bin were removed from the kitchen and crews exhausted a considerable amount of smoke from the 2nd floor of the Central Fire Station.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office was called to investigate the fire, and the Bureau of ATF was notified per protocol. The Fire Marshal’s Office determined the origin, and cause was spontaneous combustion of the kitchen towels. The towels had been washed during that shift and removed from dryer approximately 1-hour prior to the fire and put in the stainless-steel storage bin under the kitchen counter.

Further research on this type of fire revealed similar fires have occurred in this same manner with clean kitchen towels spontaneously combusting soon after cleaning because of the build-up of kitchen oils and cleaning solvents in the towels.

Originally the fire damage was thought to be small, but after continuing investigation this week, it was found there was residual smoke in the ceiling tiles, on the walls, in the HVAC system and inside/on various appliances and cabinets in the kitchen, which has caused much to be replaced and cleaned. The Fire Department staff is working with the City’s Insurance Company, Service-Master and various vendors to get the Station cleaned and restored to normal."