Fire at the Boston Tea Party Ship Museum

August 27, 2007 the Tea Party Museum suffered a fire, which lasted for a several hours. Fortunately, historic exhibits had already been removed before the fire and the museum was closed for renovations and had no visitors. The actual Tea Party ships (which are actually are all replicas) are safely in Gloucester being renovated for the re-opening of the museum.

The damage was done to the building on the Congress Street Bridge that caught fire. It was the former gift shop. Apparently, it contained a lot of rubber lobsters that explains the black smoke visible on the pictures. According to the Boston Herald, sparks from a welding torch used by contractors working nearby started the fire.

Hopefully this very nice museum will be reopened in 2009 as planned. You can support it by simply visiting their website.