Dec. 14, 2007

11:46 p.m.: Anne Burton, a resident of the second floor at 80 Middle St., the Lorraine Apartments building, calls 911. She reports hearing alarms going off, but smells no smoke.

11:49 p.m.: Capt. Barry Aptt and a firefighting crew arrives on a scene from a call to Rocky Neck. Aptt walks through the main entrance, smells smoke and calls for a full response, then exits to be told by colleagues that fire is visible in the windows of a basement apartment at street level on School Street — directly opposite Central Fire Station.SClB11:50 p.m. to midnight: Gloucester firefighters Marc Nicastro and Brian McKinnon attempt to rescue Robert Taylor through a small window in his third-floor apartment, but are driven back by heavy black smoke. All other residents are able to leave the building safely and on their own.

Dec. 15, 2007

About 12:30 a.m.: The blaze goes to eight alarms, a first for Gloucester, as flames spill over to the neighboring Temple Ahavat Achim, home to Cape Ann's first and only Jewish congregation. Mutual aid comes from fire departments in North Andover, Saugus, Salem, Beverly and other smaller area communities. More than 100 firefighters and 15 pieces of apparatus are on the scene.

About 2 a.m.: Flames from the temple whip over a narrow alley toward Sawyer Free Library, but the winds — and the flames — blow back onto themselves.

About 2:30 a.m.: Building Inspector William Sanborn is told by radio that firefighters believe the library and YMCA will also be lost.

Just after 9 a.m.: Jewish congregants hold Saturday Sabbath services in the Unitarian Universalist Church, a bit farther down Middle Street, while firefighters try to quell the flames in their synagogue and the apartment building. Gov. Deval Patrick joins the hastily organized service, which begins with tearful congregants sitting in pews as firefighters march in with burned Torah prayer shawls, religious books and other materials salvaged from the synagogue. Four other Torahs are lost, along with the entire temple library. ... The Unitarian Universalist Church opens its sanctuary to the temple for as long as it is needed.

The fire takes out nearly the entire block of Middle Street between Dale Avenue and School Street. Fire Chief Barry McKay says at least one person is presumed dead; Trinity Congregational Church pastor Thomas Bentley identifies the victim as Robert Taylor, 70, a caretaker at the nearby church, which is singed by the flames.

Red Cross sets up in the mayor's office, but authorities quickly lose track of the displaced residents of the Lorraine, who for the most part find immediate shelter with friends and family.

Donations are being accepted at Action Inc and at the Gloucester Fund, 45 Middle St. Daniel Gattinieri, a co-owner of the Lorraine, announces at an emergency response meeting in City Hall Auditorium that he will give $10,000 to the fund. The Docksiders, the Gloucester High School stage band, also begins a fund for the victims.

Dec. 17: Fuller School is set up as a site for processing aid for the homeless.

Fire officials say that, if the Lorraine Apartments building were constructed today, instead of 1910, it would have had a sprinkler system that could have knocked down the fire that erupted in death and destruction.

Dec. 19: The fire still burns on Middle Street as the search for Taylor's remains and a cause for the fire continues after being called off because of bad weather conditions. Both searches are suspended at the end of the day and will resume after a severe weather system passes. "In my 10-plus years as fire marshal, we have never left the scene of a tragedy without the remains of the victims," Fire Marshal Stephen Coan says. ... The YMCA opens after the air has been tested and declared clean; residents return to their apartments.

Dec. 20: The fire is finally quelled.

Dec. 21: The Times reports that 80 Middle Street Partners LLC — owner of the Lorraine Apartments — did not have an occupancy permit for the 23-unit, four-story building. Witnesses tell the Times a shirt left to dry on a lamp in a basement apartment may have caused the fire.

Dec. 22: A Gathering for Community Healing, Remembrance and Thanksgiving — a chance for the community to come together to grieve and move forward — is held at Trinity Congregational Church on Middle Street.

Dec. 24: A benefit show put on by 10 bands at the now defunct Jazzy Joe's tops organizers' goal for $5,000 in door fees and auction income; they end up with $10,861. The fund receives $8,400, but a check from Jazzy Joe's owner for $2,800 bounces. In May, after legal action, the owner is ordered to make good on the check or face larceny charges. The criminal case is pending.

Dec. 25: After six days, efforts to recover Taylor's body resume at a stepped-up level. A number of state, federal and local agencies begin collaborating in a search-and-recovery effort so intensive that it compares only with the aftermath of the Worcester Cold Storage warehouse fire in 1999, in which six firefighters died, according to state Fire Marshal spokeswoman Jennifer Mieth.

Dec. 26: Mayor-elect Carolyn Kirk announces plans to request a formal "after-action report" on the emergency response to the Middle Street fire. ... Sawyer Free Library reopens after cleaning and recovering from smoke damage.

Dec. 28: Remains, believed to be those of Taylor, are found during an intensive search of the Middle Street rubble.

Dec. 31, 2007: Shanna Schulze, a Lorraine tenant, sues 80 Middle Street Partners LLC for punitive damages and $1.1 million in compensatory damages.

Jan. 7: The remains found in the rubble of the Lorraine Apartments more than a week ago are identified as human, a spokesman for the state medical examiner said. A spokesman for the state Office of the Medical Examiner says that, because no other deaths have been reported, the remains are presumed to be Taylor's.

Jan. 10: Two daughters of the late Robert Taylor's girlfriend say they would like to claim his remains and bury him next to their mother if no next of kin steps forward. Karen Panos of Austin, Texas, said she and her sister Debbie O'Connor of Lexington, Ky., consider themselves as close to family as anyone could be, regardless of legal documents.

Jan. 11: The fire is ruled an accident after a four-week investigation that relied almost entirely on witnesses' accounts because the destruction of the apartment building, where the fire likely began in the basement, was so complete that any physical clues were destroyed. A statement by state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan identifies several possible sources of ignition, but said none could be independently corroborated by investigators.

Jan. 12: Fire relief volunteers wind down their efforts, hoping to have furniture and cash distribution to the victims complete in the next three weeks.

Jan. 23: The Gloucester Fund receives a $23,000 donation from Temple Ahavat Achim. Each of the surviving Lorraine residents, as well as podiatrist Silvester Smith, whose office was located in the building, will receive an equal portion of the money. Since the Dec. 15 fire, the Gloucester Fund has received more than $120,000 in donations.

Donations also pour in to the temple, many from North Shore churches, to help the rebuilding process. "We have received donations of all sizes, up to $5,000," temple Treasurer Carole Sharoff says. "It gives me hope in the spirit of mankind."

Piles of clothing and trailers full of furniture collected for and picked over by the Middle Street fire victims will be heaped upon the 200 victims of a Lawrence fire that burned down 14 buildings in a city block early Jan. 21.

Feb. 2: A memorial service is held for Taylor at First Baptist Church on High Street in Rockport, where he had been a sexton. A burial still hasn't been arranged because the remains believed to be his are in the custody of the state Medical Examiner's office.

Feb. 26: Dan Dilullo, an architect for Gattineri and Raso, appears before the Historic District Commission to begin discussions on the replacement building. Although the Lorraine was a nonconforming use under city zoning regulations, the owners have the right to replace it on the same footprint.

Early March: Seven tenants decide to join Schulze in her lawsuit. The principals of 80 Middle Street Partners, real estate developers Daniel Gattineri and Gary Raso, through their lawyer, Janet Pezzulich, deny liability for the fire.

May: Temple Ahavat Achim moves to 33 Commercial St., a waterfront office building where worshippers look out the window to see the horizon of Gloucester Harbor. They affectionately refer to the space as the "Temp. Temp."

May 11: The Gloucester Daily Times earns a national Newspaper of the Year award in Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.'s annual journalism competition. The Times' award came in the category for daily newspapers with circulations of less than 12,000. In honoring the Times, judges cited its strong local coverage and compelling reporting, especially in coverage of the devastating December fire on Middle Street in downtown Gloucester.

June 19: The Office of the Medical Examiner releases the remains, which were "only tissue and not much of it," of Taylor to Debbie O'Connor.

Late June: Temple Ahavat Achim decides to rebuild on the site of the fire-ravaged synagogue. Spokespersons say the decision reflects the commitment to remain within the ecumenical mix of churches along Middle Street, where the congregation had been since 1950. The new temple would be designed with green principles, focused on putting spaces to multiple uses.

July 8: The attorney for the Lorraine's tenants presses for criminal charges against property owners Gary Raso and Daniel Gattineri for allegedly keeping a key egress from the building locked shut. The charge stems from an affidavit filed by Lorraine resident Bryan Carignan, who occupied a small basement apartment, and said there was but one viable exit from the structure. A second door, which opened onto another hallway and out to Middle Street, was "locked as it always was," Carignan said. That was, the tenants' lawyers say, "reckless endangerment" to everyone in the building. Raso and Gattineri deny the charges. The case is pending.

July 10: Navy veteran Taylor, the fire's only victim is laid to rest in the Veterans' Lot at Beechbrook Cemetery. He is buried near his late girlfriend of nearly 30 years, Sylvia Gardner, an Air Force veteran. Gardner's two daughters, for whom Taylor was like a father, worked with the state medical examiner's office for months to obtain the remains so they could be buried.

Aug. 8: Times staff writers Richard Gaines and Gail McCarthy capture first prize in the New England Associated Press News Executives Association (NEAPNEA) newswriting contest for their coverage of the Middle Street fire.

Aug. 25: The U.S. Small Business Administration reminds businesses in Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties and Southern New Hampshire that Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available to small businesses impacted by the Lorraine Apartments building fire. Deadline to apply is Sept. 27.

Sept. 29: The Jewish high holiday Rosh Hashanah, which marks the start of the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown. For members of Temple Ahavat Achim, the holiday especially marks a new beginning, moving toward construction of a new temple on the site of the one lost in the December Middle Street fire. Preliminary and morning services are held at Cruiseport Gloucester, followed by a special afternoon memorial at the Middle Street site. Evening services are held at "Temp. Temp."

Dec. 3: A group of Gloucester firefighters who fought the deadly Middle Street blaze are honored as part of the 19th annual state "Firefighter of the Year" awards program in Boston. Marc Nicastro receives an individual meritorious conduct service award for his efforts to rescue Taylor, the fire's single victim.