Boston Harbor Office Building Up in Smoke after Tossed Cigarette Set Blaze

A worker, who tossed a lit cigarette from the second-floor deck of one of Boston’s Commercial Wharf office buildings, sparked a three-alarm fire that destroyed files and mementos from four law office tenants. Damage to the building, which is perched on wood pilings in Boston Harbor, was estimated at $3 million.

Five firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting the blaze, which required the use of the Boston Fire Department’s fireboat and about a dozen divers, said department spokesman Steve MacDonald. Investigators concluded that a cigarette disposal was to blame after studying the burn pattern of the property and eliminating other possibilities, such as malfunctioning utility systems. “The place is a total loss, and the property owners are going to have to make some decisions about the building itself,’’ MacDonald said.

Lawyer Steve Lyons said at the scene that he lost many files and mementos he had amassed over a 31-year career. One lawyer, who represented Philip Markoff, the so-called Craigslist killer who committed suicide in August while awaiting trial in the slaying of a New York masseuse in a Back Bay hotel, didn’t lose any files. Firefighters carried out tenants’ possessions, including hard drives, computers, files, and fine art, while battling the blaze.

There was serious structural damage to the beams that support the building, and firefighters had to cut up much of the flooring to contain the fire Tenants were escorted one at a time into the building to retrieve personal effects after the fire was extinguished and before workers began boarding up windows on the first floor of the building.