State suspends license of fire inspector connected to Harborside Inn – what we know.

NEW SHOREHAM – The inspector who marked as compliant the fire-suppression system that failed to activate in the Harborside Inn during a blaze that destroyed the historic hotel has had his license revoked, state officials confirmed.

Peter Freund, owner of Emergency Services of New England LLC, was operating under a license issued in 2021 when he inspected the kitchen exhaust hood's fire-suppression system in the Harborside Grill in April 2023 and tagged it as compliant with state fire codes, Matthew Touchette, spokesman for Rhode Island Commerce's Department of Business Regulation, said in an email.

The license revocation comes in the wake of Freund’s disclosures to officials investigating the Harborside Inn fire that he marked the system as compliant although he was aware that the components were not rated to work together, according to a report from the state fire marshal's office released Sept. 22.

"The manufacturer specifically warned that the system may fail to operate and may fail to extinguish a fire," the fire marshal's report states. "This is evidenced by the fire at 41 Water Street on 8/18. The fact that Freund allowed this condition to continue may represent gross malpractice and/or incompetence."

Freund has the right to appeal the revocation.

The report outlines the possible causes of the fire that erupted late Aug. 18, including the buildup of grease in the hood in the kitchen. The report theorized the fire probably started when grease was ignited and then spread up into the hood before entering the wall cavity and traveling  to the building's roof.

Attorney general's office joins probe

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha’s office said this week it has joined the state fire marshal in the investigation, as is authorized to by state law.

“The Attorney General’s Office has recently received copies of the Fire Marshal’s investigative materials and will review those materials further to determine if there was any criminal conduct arising out of their investigation,” spokesman Brian Hodge said in an email.

Touchette said Thursday that the fire marshal did not request the assistance of the attorney general, but that state prosecutors had requested the fire report this week.

Two other businesses affected, one remains closed

Freund additionally acknowledged tagging non-compliant systems in the kitchens at Club Soda and Mohegan Café, both of which were shut down Aug. 31 following inspections by the Office of the State Fire Marshal, Touchette said.  Mohegan Café was allowed to re-open their kitchen on Sept. 1 after the hood suppression system was fixed. Club Soda’s kitchen remains closed.

Freund acknowledged tagging Harborside Inn’s fire-suppression system as compliant repeatedly over the years, the report said. He admitted, too, that he did not test components of the system, including the gas-shutoff valve, the report alleged.

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“Freund stated that he had verbally advised the building owner that the two components were not listed for use together but that, when the building owner did not want to pay for a new control head, Freund tagged the system as compliant regardless,” the report states.

Michael Finnimore, who is a co-owner of the Harborside with his ex-wife, Vaux Finnimore, has an ownership interest in the building housing the Mohegan Cafe at 213 Water St. as well as  the High View Inn, at 35 Connecticut Ave., where Club Soda is located.

Finnimore could not immediately be reached for comment.

State fire code requirements

State fire code requires a business owner to have fire alarms, sprinklers, suppression systems that are inspected by a licensed technician, Touchette said.

Freund, 66, of East Hampton, Connecticut, held a journeyman license to service extinguishing equipment.

A city or town conducts inspections periodically to assure that those inspections have been done by the licensed technicians and each system tagged. The state marshal’s office assumes those duties if a municipality lacks an inspector, Touchette said.

The sprinkler system was inspected and tagged by a licensed technician in August and the fire alarm system in June, Touchette said.

“Both of those systems worked in this fire and likely prevented further property damage and loss of life,” Touchette said in an email.

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The hood cleaning was last inspected in May of 2022, and the fire marshal’s office had not conducted a compliance inspection to confirm the inspection at the Harborside since that office took over inspections on Block Island in 2019, Touchette said.

“It is the business owner’s obligation to comply with the fire code and the municipality or [fire marshal’s office]  checks compliance through the tags placed on systems by licensed technicians. Neither the OFSM nor municipalities do the actual testing,” Touchette said.

Hood cleaning regimen failed to meet code

The Harbor Grill was leased by Atanas Krastev.

According to the report, Krastev told investigators that he was responsible for all the equipment inside the kitchen, and that the exhaust hood was typically cleaned at the beginning and end of the season.

Fire investigator Hannah J. Burnes said in the report that the last hood-cleaning had actually taken place in May 2022 “outside the allowable time per Rhode Island Fire Code."

Krastev could not be immediately reached for comment.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Harborside Inn fire investigation: Inspector's license revoked