BUCKSPORT, Maine — The residents of a secluded two-story home a mile off the Bucks Mills Road are safe after a fire consumed the building early Monday morning.
Bucksport Fire Chief Craig Bowden said the call came in around 4:30 a.m. from 560 Bucks Mills Road. When firefighters arrived, it was a one-mile trek down a narrow driveway to the house, which was already engulfed in flames.
“It certainly had a head start on us,” Bowden said. “You could see completely through the structure and the roof was collapsing.”
The cause of the fire is still unknown, and Bowden said the Bucksport fire and police departments, as well as investigators from the state fire marshal’s office, will be on scene to try to uncover the source.
Three people, including a mother and her adult daughter, lived at the home, Bowden said. He couldn’t identify the residents, but said they were awakened by dogs barking. He said one dog may have perished in the fire.
Bowden said the home’s remote location and narrow access made it difficult to respond quickly.
“We had problems even placing our vehicles once we got in there, so we had to limit what trucks did come in,” he said.
Bucksport was assisted by fire crews from Orland and Orrington. The towns in the area have dealt with a rash of structure fires in recent days, including a fire in Orrington that killed four on Saturday, and a fire in Ellsworth that left a family homeless. One of the victims in that fire committed suicide the next day.
Bowden said it has been a rough month for area fire crews.
“We’ve had more in the past month than I think we have in the past year,” he said.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
Sure are a lot of fires going on. Very disturbing.
With the start of another heating season it is a reminder to everyone that we all need to be extra careful in slowing down and making sure everything is properly stored and all equipment (including detectors) is in good working order. Glad all people are safe and sorry if a dog perished but glad the dogs alerted them of danger.
Glad they got out.
this is the heating season. time to clean chimneys furnaces. some people use space heaters to save on heating oil. some use ovens to heating limited space . trying to save on oil. things like that are little dangerous .
I believe that home is off the electrical grid.