Office Building, Retail New Canaan, CT – Fire in historic downtown commercial building contained by sprinkler system September 7, 2016 viking210 New Canaan firefighters on Monday night put out a blaze that had broken out in the third story of a commercial building at the corner of on Main Street and East Avenue, prompting emergency responders to close the area to motor vehicle traffic. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire at 96 Main St., though it appeared to have started in the attic of the prominent downtown building, according to Fire Chief Jack Hennessey. “Sprinklers assisted with putting out the fire,” Hennessey told NewCanaanite.com. “The sprinklers saved the day. It could have been a very, very serious fire. Right now we are making sure that we got all of the fire and we are dealing with the water damage from the sprinkler system.” No one was hurt in the blaze, which drew multiple New Canaan Police and Fire Department vehicles—including Engine 1 and Ladder 2—at about 7:48 p.m., officials said. The full extent of the damage could not immediately be assessed, Hennessey said, though it included structural damage in the attic and water damage on the third floor and possibly second floor. “It’s dark and it’s still a mess, so it’s hard to tell,” he said. The smell of smoke wafted down from the building on this windy Labor Day night, as some dozen people milled about the street and sidewalk below. Police closed Main Street between Locust and East Avenues, and also directed eastbound traffic on East Avenue back down away from the scene. The 1912-built, brick-exterior building—long known as the “Wire Whisk” space and currently occupied by both New Canaan Nails & Spa and Kaahve coffee shop on the ground floor facing Main Street, and Cava restaurant on a lower level around Forest Street—is known to longtime locals as the former base of Elliot Noyes & Associates, named for the Harvard Five architect who worked and resided in New Canaan.
