Yesterday morning, a beloved Cape Cod restaurant was engulfed in flames that took nearly seven hours to extinguish. Captain Scott's Seafood Bar and Grill, a staple on Tupper Road in Sandwich for the past 36 years, reported a fire at 5:27 a.m. As crews arrived, they were met with heavy smoke and an unstable floor, prompting them to tackle the blaze from the outside, as NBC Boston reported.
A complicated situation turned even more perilous when the building's natural gas regulator burned off, resulting in a gas leak. It wasn't until an excavator tore the structure open that the fire was deemed controlled. Sandwich Fire Chief John Burke emphasized the enormity of the response, detailing in a statement obtained by WCVB how the situation escalated from a third to a fourth alarm, calling in reinforcements from nearby fire districts. An exhaustive effort from over 40 firefighters finally subdued the fire by 12:30 p.m.
The incident hit hard for George Gossios, whose family owns Captain Scott's. He recounted his shock upon receiving the news. "You get a phone call like that, your mind goes to, 'Oh my God,' this is happening," Gossios told NBC Boston. Despite the shock and loss, Gossios is already eyeing reconstruction, stressing the importance of the restaurant to both his family and the community. "This is my family's legacy. This is our baby since 1989. I was here since I was 11 years old," he shared.
Regulars and neighbors echo this sentiment for the restaurant, long considered a community hub. "A lot of people are going to be sad about it. We just saw people across the street who were shocked if they hadn't driven by yet," local patron Jan Grealey said in a WCVB interview. Amidst the ordeal, Gossios remains optimistic. "Things do happen. We're here, no one was hurt. Everybody was fine," he remarked, already setting sights on rebuilding the legacy reduced to ashes.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Sandwich Fire Department and the Massachusetts State Fire Marshal's Office, but it is not currently being treated as suspicious.
