Fire crews from Oak Bluffs and Tisbury responded to an electrical outlet fire at Winston’s Kitchen in Oak Bluffs at 8:29 am Saturday. Oak Bluffs police officers blocked the parking lot area from cars. Oak Bluffs EMS was on standby.

“Within minutes, our senior captain arrived on location,” Oak Bluffs Deputy Fire Chief Stephen Foster said. According to Foster, smoke came out of the interior of the “one-story wood frame commercial restaurant.” 

“There was an employee inside the building who called 911. He had a smell of smoke and saw the smoke coming out from that electric outlet. He quickly called 911 and deployed the fire extinguisher,” Foster said. 

A fire engine handline was used to “knock out the fire.” However, it was discovered that there was a fire in the walls around the electrical outlet, which was when mutual aid from Tisbury and Edgartown Fire Departments were called for support. 

There were no flames at the scene when a Times reporter arrived, but fire crews were still actively investigating the source of the fire.

“The fire was quickly knocked down, it was contained to one wall. There was moderate damage to that wall,” Foster said. 

Once the fire was contained, aid from Edgartown was canceled while a Tisbury fire engine arrived to help on the scene. 

“Thank you to our mutual aid partners,” Foster said. 

Tisbury firefighters and fire equipment left the scene before Oak Bluffs emergency responders. Just before 10 am, an Eversource truck arrived at the scene.

Winston’s will be closed for the time being. Eversource and the OB wire inspector are searching for a point of origin. The town’s health agent was also at the scene since it’s a restaurant.

“The board of health and building department will be determining when they can reopen,” Foster said. 

Nobody was injured during the incident.

The post Fire reported at Winston’s appeared first on The Martha’s Vineyard Times.

On Friday evening, Tisbury had itself another annual birthday party on Main Street after two years off because of COVID. Main Street was filled with people and vendors. There was facepainting, food, a long line for fried dough, and lots of silly string and poppers — the classics of the Tisbury Street Fair. 

Back as well at the fair were the Lobster Ladies supporting the American Legion Auxiliary.  Nancy Nevin told The Times these women have been selling their lobster rolls at the fair for at least 30 years, “We’ve been coming out to the fair going as far back as when Cora Medeiros was selectwoman,” she said. Nevin also said that every year the fair gives them one of the best spots on the street, setting up shop at the farthest end of the street. “I love it because we can look down and see the whole town,” Nevin said.

Set up next to the Lobster Ladies was one of the several Tisbury Fire Department stands where Chief Greg Leland told The Times his biggest takeaway was this year’s crowd. “Even more so than the last year we were open, the streets are full from one end to the other. Hopefully next year we will get some more vendors out here, but we look forward to continuing the tradition of the Tisbury Street Fair.” 

Further down the street, Shelley Christiansen and her mom, Sheppie Moore, had a different take on the crowd. Christiansen recalled a Tisbury Street Fair crowd 15 to 20 years back where people could hardly move as the crowd was shoulder to shoulder. “In more recent years it has been a nice-sized crowd where you can actually walk down the street,” she said. Originally from New York but year-round in Oak Bluffs since 2004, Christiansen said what draws her and her mom to the fair year after year is “the people watching more than anything else, and usually snacking, but not this year because we did lobster rolls first.” 

While many classics remained from years past at the fair, a new sight to see this year was Frank Brown and his custom, programmable lightsaber, a business he started three years ago. Brown, originally from Indiana, has been coming to the Island during the summer with his family since he was about 10 years old. Brown could be found walking up and down the street gathering crowds of kids to check out his lightsaber. “The fair was happening today and I thought what better place to show off my lightsaber…and what kid doesn’t love a lightsaber, so I’m giving them a chance to play with it and everything,” he said. Brown made sure to show The Times his saber’s different color settings and light cues too, and it did not disappoint.

The post Happy birthday Tisbury! appeared first on The Martha’s Vineyard Times.

Pfizer says tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and boosts protection. Saturday’s announcement comes just days before regulators debate whether to offer Americans updated booster shots this fall. The current COVID-19 vaccines still offer…