News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena Detective Sergeant Bill Gohl, left, and Andy Marceau, community risk reduction captain for the fire department, comb through the debris left from a fire at the Thunder Bay Theatre early Sunday morning. Fire Chief Rob Edmonds said, at this point, there doesn’t appear to be anything suspicious about the fire.

ALPENA — On Monday, the Alpena Fire Department and Alpena Police Department began to investigate the cause of the fire at the Thunder Bay Theatre that occurred in the early morning hours on Sunday.

According to Fire Chief Rob Edmonds, at this time, it doesn’t appear there is anything suspicious about the blaze, but he said the investigation is still in its infancy and if any foul play is suspected, the public would be counted on for help.

“As of now, we are looking into this as a normal fire investigation, which is the standard for every fire,” Edmonds said. “Right now we haven’t found anything that leads us to believe anything suspicious happened.”

Andy Marceau, community risk reduction captain for the fire department, and Bill Gohl, detective sergeant of Alpena police, are tasked with the investigation pertaining to the fire, how and where it started, and if it was deliberately started.

Edmonds said some of the aspects of the fire do raise eyebrows and definitely need to be investigated. He said Marceau and Gohl’s first priority is to rule out arson.

“First, they will try to rule out that it was started intentionally and then proceed to what the cause was,” he said. “It is odd only because that part of the buildings was cold storage, there was no construction going on in that area, and what time of the night it happened when there was nobody around. Like I said, right now we are treating this as a normal investigation, but that is subject to change if our investigators find something.”

The debris from the building covers a large section behind the main portion of the theater and on Monday, Marceau and Gohl were raking and digging through it looking to unravel the mystery of how the blaze began. Edmonds said the rubble will make the investigation difficult, but some indicators from the scene Sunday morning will give Marceau an indication of where to begin the investigation.

“Andy was one of the first ones on the scene and there were fire patterns and smoke patterns that should give him a starting point to look for clues,” he said.

This is the second time in three years the theater has suffered fire damage. In July of 2020, a fire that destroyed the John A. Lau restaurant also caused damage to the theater. Since then, the Thunder Bay Theatre has been working on repairs in hopes of reopening.

Renovation began in September, and the $1.4 million renovation project was expected to be wrapped up in time to open in the fall of next year.

Now, uncertainty surrounds that timeline.

The money raised to restore the theater came via state and local grants including the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan Arts and Culture Council, State Historic Preservation Office, First Federal Legacy Foundation, and the Besser Foundation.

The theater received insurance funds for the damage, but the funds needed to be more adequate to address all of the building needs.

The theater board has already indicated it intends to continue to move forward with reopening the theater and addressing the damage caused by the latest fire.