STORY

On August 27, 2007 at 1200 hours, the Fire Alarm Office (FAO) transmitted Box 1411, Dorchester Avenue & Congress Street, for a fire at the Boston Tea Party Museum located on a pier at the Congress Street Bridge. The Tea Party Museum was vacant at the time. It had damaged after being struck by lightning on August 3, 2001, causing a three-alarm fire. The Congress Street Bridge crosses the Fort Point Channel, which separates downtown Boston from South Boston.

The Museum consisted of a two-story building at the Bridge which had housed the Entrance/Exit, Gift Shop and Museum, and a pier at water level which had been the berth for the replica Tea Party Ship, the Beaver II. The Beaver II had been moved from the site in 2004. The Museum is located a short distance away from the site of Griffin's Wharf, where the actual Boston Tea Party took place on December 16, 1773.

Construction work was underway on the bridge at the time and sparks from cutting and welding ignited the fire. The wood museum building was only several yards away from the construction zone, and the the subsequent fire ignited a large plastic tarp covering part of the construction site.

The fire occurred at noon on a summer day in downtown Boston and attracted a large crowd of spectators. The Children's Museum is located on the South Boston side of the Fort Point Channel and patrons there had a unrestricted view of the fire.

Wind and tide conditions prevented the large Boston fireboat, 'Firefighter', from gaining access beneath the Moakley Bridge at Seaport Boulevard. The Boston Fire Department Dive Team was activated in order to fight the fire from the waterline and under the pier.

The Tea Party Museum plans to rebuild the Museum at the same site, return the Beaver II, and add two more similar replica ships.

The response to the fire was as follows: