The January fire that destroyed the famed Shirley’s Tippy Canoe restaurant is being investigated as “suspicious,” the Corbett Fire District said Thursday.

Investigators are looking into the days and hours before the blaze ruined the iconic spot on the Sandy River, said Corbett Fire Chief Dave Flood.

“There are some concerning things that happened leading up to the fire that don’t add up and that kind of point us to what happened,” he said, but declined to say more about the circumstances.

Fire officials haven’t determined a cause yet, he said. Investigators have narrowed the place where they believe the fire started to “a small area” on the second floor and are trying to recover security camera footage but don’t know if it will be usable, he said.

They also asked anyone who might know more details about the blaze to call the department at 503-695-2272.

Firefighters responded to the scene, at 28242 E. Historic Columbia River Highway, around 5 a.m. and found that the entire second floor of the restaurant ablaze. The first floor had high heat and heavy smoke damage.

Investigators said they believe the losses total more than $1 million. The restaurant was a total loss.

Flood noted that the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office investigated a burglar alarm that was tripped in the restaurant shortly before the fire began, but believe that the motion sensor picked up movement from the flames — not from a person.

Restaurant owner Shirley Welton did not immediately return messages for comment. Shortly after the Jan. 17 fire, she told KATU that she learned about it from a TV report. She told KATU that she has owned the restaurant along the Historic Columbia River Highway since 2007.

Flood said the fire district is aware that Welton has had several other restaurants that have caught fire in the past 40 years.

“We have looked into those fires as well,” he said. “But that’s driving very little of our investigation.”

Newspaper articles indicate that fires damaged three other restaurants owned by Welton. None of those fires were suspicious, according to the accounts.

The most recent was in 2011 at Shirley’s At The Beach in Lincoln City. Investigators found the fire was accidentally started by a chef who left a pot on the stove and the burner on, according to records from the North Lincoln Fire & Rescue District obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Flood said it could take months or years to determine what happened at the Tippy Canoe. Investigators can take samples and bring out search dogs to determine if accelerants were used, for example, but that process can be long and slow, especially if a building was heavily damaged as was the Tippy Canoe.

The restaurant was once notorious for raucous parties and brawls, according to a 2008 story in The Oregonian/OregonLive when Welton bought the restaurant. Welton said she had a special connection to the place, as she had ordered her first-ever beer at the roadhouse on her 21st birthday. She said she had long been interested in the place and decided to buy it after seeing three consecutive owners buy and sell the property. Welton turned the former tavern into a family restaurant, the story said, and revamped the space, pouring more than $300,000 into it.

—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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