ETNA, Maine — When firefighters arrived at Watsons Custom Butchering shop early Friday, it was too late to save one building and an oil tank filled with fuel was actively burning and spitting fire at a second building, according to Etna fire Capt. Aaron Brown.
“A 275-gallon oil drum was venting — it was on fire,” the captain said. “It was blowing fire on the other building we wanted to save.”
Firefighters, who arrived about 2:15 a.m., were able to keep the second building, which was filled with farm equipment and grain, cool enough to prevent it from catching fire, Brown said.
“When we got there the [first] building was already gone,” the captain said. “It wasn’t noticed until late. The sides were metal. The roof was metal and it got really, really hot inside before it burned through. It made it really hard to put it out.”
The destroyed building had four or five freezers, a couple of smokers, meat-cutting machines and other supplies for the business.
Owner Andy Watson, who lives in a house on the Carter Road property that was not near the fire, “came out and said, ‘I can’t lose both buildings,’” Brown said.
There was so much damage to the first building that there is no way to determine what caused the fire, Sgt. Tim York of the state fire marshal’s office said Friday.
The oil inside the tank was allowed to burn off, Brown said.
“We let it vent itself out,” the captain said, adding that it could have exploded if pressure had built up. “That is why usually when something is venting we let it vent.”
Local firefighters got help from neighboring Carmel, Dixmont, Newport and Plymouth to extinguish the blaze, Brown said.
at least no one was hurt.. best wishes getting rebuilt and back to work
Please don’t take the comment that way. I agree with you 100%. I was trying to make a point that your town’s select persons for several years has put down their fire department and at some times has tried to close the fire department and/or minimize its helping of other towns. People don’t realize what it can do to anyone. It is devastating to those that have a fire and lose what they have worked hard to build. If there had been no fire dept in Etna, the Carmel, Newburgh, Dixmont, Plymouth, etc. fire depts might not have gotten there in time to save the other building. I’m trying to show that towns need their fire depts and continue with mutual aid from surrounding towns. Its just that people never think it will happen to them but when it does, maybe then they will see how valuable to keep the town’s fire dept. I am very thankful that Mr. Watson did not lose anymore than what he did and the quickness of the fire depts helped that happen. I hope that Mr. Watson does rebuild soon and hope he gets help from others in the community. Mr. Watson nor anyone else deserves what had happened, but things like this do happen and thank goodness it was put down as soon as it did.
By the way, I am not a fire fighter, I don’t have anyone on the fire department, but I do support the fire department (all fire depts) and possibly with good reason to support all fire departments. I would like to see others do the same before it is too late.
Are you kidding me! First of all you don’t know what you are talking about. Before you open up about a subject you should get informed. “Mr. Watson” is not now nor has he ever tried to “get rid” of the fire department. Get informed Wildeye25. Our family wants to thank all the departments that helped keep the rest of the buildings from burning. A special thank you to our neighbor for all they did.
Sorry about your fire, Laurie. How much can a person take, right? Hope you can recover from your loss. There’s always a naysayer in every crowd; try to stay away from the negative people and stick with the positive ones.
Why would you post a comment that is basically saying that “Mr. Watson” deserved what happened?…. No one ever deserves this devastation
Ms. Watson, again, I was never stating that Mr. Watson or anyone else deserves a devistation such as a fire, flood, hurricane or anything else. And maybe the information given to me is not correct regarding Mr. Watson himself and his thoughts on the fire department, but will tell you that his name was said with a couple other select persons names who have put down the fire department in the past. Maybe they were wrong by Mr. Watson. Maybe I should start going to the select board meetings, again maybe a few of the towns people should go to to see what is happening with their town. Again, I do not wish this on anyone. I have been there and unfortunately we lost everything. But even though we lost everything, we saw how hard the fire departments tried to save what we had. I still commend them for that. So I do not wish a fire on anyone ever. At the same time, I hate to see a town lose their fire department because the people who run a town think they no longer need a fire department and the surrounding towns will take care of them. That is the point I was trying to make. I apologize and I’m deeply sorry if you or anyone else thought that I wanted harm to come to anyone or for anyone to lose what they worked hard to have.
Many thanks for this fire are in order. Each of these are as important as the next.
1.) Taxpayers of Etna who have the forsight to recognize the need for a fire department.
2.) The surrounding towns who are willing to respond to Etna to help.
3.) The road and sand crews who came out and put extra sand on the fire scene to prevent firefighters from slipping and trucks from crashing into each other.
4.) The nice lady at the store who made donuts and coffee for all the rescue crews.
5.) The media people who have taken pictures of the scene,which will allow investigators to see the scene and hopefully find a cause.
6.) The fire marshals office for their assistance in investigating the fire.
Etna Fire is always looking for volunteers. If you have an opinion, please take out an application and volunteer to get up at night, in the cold, responding for hours, to help your neighbor. Only with assistance will these small departments survive.
What if you dialled 911 and no one responded? Our communities are there now. Comments listed in these articles do not help the few responders whom are left.
This is my opinion, I welcome yours. Come to the selectboard meeting and help solve the problem.
It is funny that there is an insuation that the good people of Etna had the sense to vote against the selectboard and keep the fire department. Very far from the truth. At each town meeting, especially the ones in the last couple of years, the selectboard and the townspeople were on the same page for the need of fire coverage and the realistic budget the town should be operating……this has been accomplished and it works very well.
Mr. Watson was elected to help the town save on tax money. He cut out the town’s extracurricular activities by not having multiple fire trucks attending parades throughout the surrounding communities. By doing so, this saves the town money on fuel. The fuel the trucks burn comes out of the tax payers’ pocket.
If you want a selectman’s job, and think, you can run the town better, go ahead and run for office in March.
Instead of everyone complaining, they might want to be thankful that no one was hurt, people or animals. Thank you to all the fire departments that responded and had the fire out quick. I hope they can recover quick and back in business by the end of May or sooner.
Actually, the desire fo the selectboard was to keep the fire department in town. Mutual aid agreements with towns such as Levant and Hermon made no sense. In a town of 1000 people, taxpayers paid a high price for the equipment they purchased and Etna’s fire department budget was 2 and 3 times that of towns their size. Over the last couple years, the budget has been reduced to a reasonable level and Etna responds to Etna calls (which are very few) and is always willing to help a neighboring town in crisis – THATS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT. The frustration was the fact that they were headed out every day on calls across the county and putting much wear and tear on the equipment. Call logs were comparable to Newport, a town 6 times larger than Etna. I rarely hear the fire trucks and it has been a welcome change. Everyone benefits from each towns ability to maintain good equipment and to be able to respond when needed. Kudos to the department for doing such a good job in keeping this fire under control and for the neighboring departments for responding and working the fire so efficiently and effectively. Mutual aid at its best.