LINCOLNVILLE, Maine — A balsam fir pillow that had been microwaved Saturday night by a Wentworth Road woman who wanted to “recharge the scent” sparked a fire in her garage that could have been very destructive, according to the fire chief.
“Apparently she overdid it,” said Lincolnville Fire Chief Jason Peasley of the pillow’s trip to the microwave. “When she did it, she burnt it.”
The burned pillow no longer smelled aromatic, and so the woman — whom he did not identify — put it in her garage overnight. What she didn’t know was that the needles had caught fire, and the pillow smoldered in the garage for hours.
“Between 7:30 and 8 a.m., it actually combusted and caught fire,” he said Monday.
The flaming pillow caused a workbench to burn in the garage, as well as tools and some of the walls.
“It caused enough smoldering in there that a lot of the walls had blackened,” Peasley said.
The woman went into her garage Sunday morning and acted quickly when she saw the flames.
“She called 911 because it was on fire, then she started putting it out herself,” the chief said. “She knocked it down herself with a fire extinguisher and a bucket of water.”
He said that four tankers and engines and 19 volunteer firefighters responded to the fire. Lincolnville also had initially asked for help from four other communities but once the firefighters realized that the woman had extinguished the fire on her own, they canceled the requests.
According to Peasley, he hasn’t heard of anyone microwaving a balsam fir pillow before and said that it’s not recommended. The snowbank would have been a better place to put the smoldering pillow than the garage, the chief said.
“The damage, it’s not substantial. She was very, very lucky, obviously,” Peasley said.
“He said that four tankers and engines and 19 volunteer firefighters responded to the fire.”
Four trucks and nineteen people for a smoldering pillow? There must not be much going on in Lincolnville.
Have you ever been there? ‘Cause you’re right. Nice town, though.
Yup, and left just as fast.
Thanks for including the second to last paragraph. It was probably the most important and I hope everyone sees it. Anything hot should be taken away from the house or garage if you really enjoy your home. That includes ashes from woodstoves and fireplaces. Have a smart and safe year.
This story is stupid and oddly entertaining enough to be on television!
If you lived in or around that town you would be constantly entertained by those citizens.
I disagree with the notion of putting anything that’s on fire into a snowbank. A few years ago I watched when a well-intentioned person dumped a coals into a snowbank outside my home. They heated the snow below and around them, then sank down a bit but continued to smolder. Within several minutes, the wind blew away loose snow, exposing the coals. The wind then started to blow the coals around the yard. I’d been watching, and quickly shoveled them into a metal container with a lid (where they should’ve been to begin with), lest they snuggle up against the siding and set the house on fire.
Only in Lincolnville! But ya gotta read on, 4 tankers and engines, 19 firefighters, a call for back-up from other towns. Pay those taxes folks, I am surprised the police did not call the National Guard out.
Homeland Security and TSA would have rounded out
the “cluster” nicely.
Emptying the station is a standard practice for a structure fire, as is a call to other towns. Just a little thing called mutual aid. But I wouldn’t expect you to understand something like that. I’m sure if the house burned down you would be the first one complaining they didn’t do enough.
Standard practice huh? Decades ago when taxpayers were not so ill informed there used to be other cost saving programs, but because it is standard now, let’s not change it, it is the way it has been done. Don’t for pete’s sake send a couple guys to the scene and make a determination and a decision, its standard practice, don’t save any money, its standard practice. How about a little imagination and thinking outside the box. Cetme says its standard practice, so give up thinking.
That’s a good idea. Notify your local fire department that is what you done when you call them. Then when YOU call in a structure fire at YOUR address they can send send two guys to determine if more help is required.
People like you are pathetic… saving a dollar is more important than saving a life.
Glad she hadnt just washed her xmas kitten and wanted to freshen it up.
Just goes to show, not everything is microwaveable …………………………..
Time to enact a ban on balsam pillows, or microwaves ! Sounds as foolish as banning guns ..
DUMBASS!!!!!
You just can’t make this stuff up …