The building that was lost in an early morning fire two weeks ago in Raymond carried a bit of history, according to present owners.

The building on Route 302 in which Mains’ Pizza was located was built in 1947 by Marjorie and Charles Lester upon their relocation to Maine from Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Marjorie Lester was a gourmet cook and opened a fine dining restaurant as a means to support the family. The original restaurant was closed in 1962 after Marjorie’s husband died and her eldest son joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Germany.

A few years later, the Lesters rented the building to Al Taylor, who opened a sports shop in the space. Since that time the building has hosted various shops including a lawn and garden center, a daycare and, since 1999, Mains’ Pizza.

Pine Hollow Enterprises, which is a combination of Lester family members, still owns the building and according to a spokesperson for the company, the family would like to rebuild and allow Claude Mains to reopen his pizza shop but must wait to hear from insurance companies before making any plans.

According to the sign in front of the now-boarded-up building, Claude Mains ensures the residents of Raymond, “We’ll be back.”

The cause of the fire has been determined as faulty electrical wiring by the state fire marshal.

On the morning of Oct. 19, Cumberland County Dispatch received a call from a passing motorist, at 4:30 a.m. The call was then patched through to a Raymond dispatcher and the alarm was sounded. Coincidentally, the caller was former Raymond Fire Chief, Joseph Matthews, who stayed on the scene until the first engine arrived.

Live-in intern students Dan Hillier and Justin Emmons were the first to arrive on the scene at 4:33 a.m. Within minutes they were joined by Casco firefighter Phil Moses and Naples firefighter Curt Flannigan. Ten minutes later at least 20 volunteer firefighters were on the scene directing traffic and helping to save a town icon.

“They did a very good job,” said Assistant Raymond Fire Chief Bruce Tupper. “It was textbook. In this situation they could not have done anything different.”

Firefighter Dan Hillier described what he saw when he arrived at the scene.

“The fire was contained to the dining room,” said Hillier. “There was heavy smoke but the knock-down time was pretty quick. We kept hearing small explosions which turned out to be corks popping off the wine bottles due to the heat.”

Although the building was gutted, most of the cooking equipment was saved primarily because of the fast response time.

“It’s typical that a building of that age be torn down after that type of fire,” said Tupper. “But because of such a rapid response most of the equipment was salvaged.”