UPDATE: The cause of the fire has been determined accidental, originating in the room housing the electrical panel and a hot water heater.

CAMDEN — Late in the night, June 25, a fire broke out in an unoccupied cabin that is part of the  High Tide Inn lodging complex on Route 1 in Camden, drawing Camden and Lincolnville firefighters to douse the flames and keep embers from traveling to nearby buildings.

An investigator from the Maine State Fire Marshal's Office is to be at the inn later this morning with Camden firefighters to determine the fire's origin.

Camden Fire Chief Chris Farley said a fire in the same location in the cabin — in a back hallway — had occured at 12:30 p.m. the previous afternoon, June 25, but went unreported. 

Employees apparently said it had been a small fire that afternoon, the size of a pilot light, and extinguished it with water.

"It is unclear right now how that fire was discovered," Farley said.

The late-night fire, called in to Knox Regional Communications Center in Rockland at 11:26 p.m., was much larger, destroying much of the two-unit cabin. It started on the first floor, said Farley, and gutted the interior.

"It is probably no longer structurally stable," he said.

The inn comprises one main building and seven other lodging structures on the property.

Employees stay on site, and there were approximately a dozen overnight guests at the inn. They were woken by the sound of smoke detector alarms.

When 10 firefighters arrived from Camden Fire Dept., flames were shooting out the back of the cabin. With the help of five Lincolnville firefighters, the fire was extinguished with water. 

Crews finished dousing the fire and lingering embers by 2:30 a.m. After returning to the station and cleaning up, Camden firefighters left the station for home at 3:15 a.m.

This story will be updated when more information becomes available.