PORTLAND, Maine — As state and federal investigators tried to determine the cause of a fire that killed five young adults Saturday morning, family members and friends continued to grieve Monday.
Kyle Bozeman, 23, was outside the home at 20 Noyes St. on Monday and spoke to reporters about his harrowing escape from the blaze after being awoken by a roommate.
“Nate saved my life,” Bozeman said, referring to roommate Nathan Long, who he said woke up in a smoke-filled room to see the ceiling on fire.
Long ran down the hallway, Bozeman said, to wake him up and both escaped out a second-floor window and jumped to the ground.
It was Bozeman’s second night in the bedroom after about two months of sleeping on a couch at the house, waiting for another tenant to vacate the second-floor room at the back of the building. He said he’s now staying with friends and family in the area as he mourns the loss of three roommates and two people visiting the home who died in the fire.
“The world lost five beautiful souls on Saturday,” Bozeman said.
Below the window to his room is a small overhang that he and Long jumped to before leaping to the ground. That overhang, unlike the porch around the front half of the house, was not visibly scorched.
Investigators late Monday afternoon confirmed the identities of four people killed in the Saturday morning fire as David Bragdon Jr., 27, Christopher Conlee, 25, Ashley Thomas, 29, and Maelisha Jackson, 26. They had not confirmed but suspected Nicole Finlay, 26, died in the blaze. All died of smoke inhalation, officials said.
Survivor Steven Summers, 29, of Rockland was severely burned and is being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Bragdon’s father, David Bragdon Sr. of Rockland, said his son was passionate about music and dancing. His son received a guitar upon his graduation from Rockland District High School in 2005 and taught himself to play. He later played in a band.
More recently, the 27-year-old was focusing on techno music mixed through a computer.
Bragdon was working at the Great Lost Bear restaurant in Portland, having moved to the city this past spring. Bragdon said he had hoped that someday his son would take over his electrical contractor business.
His father said his son loved being around people and would leave people smiling. But he added that his son also had an ominous premonition.
“David always said he was going to die young,” his father said.
Investigators still have not disclosed details of the cause of the blaze, including whether there were any building code violations at the property or suspicions of foul play. Portland Fire Chief Jerome LaMoria said Monday afternoon that arson has not been ruled out as a potential cause.
Investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived in Portland at 10 a.m. Monday to help determine the fire’s origin.
Bozeman said he wasn’t sure of the cause of the fire but speculated that an unattended cigarette could have been responsible.
Neighbors on Monday speculated that the fire could have been connected to the tenants grilling in the early morning on the porch of the house, where there had been a Halloween party Friday night.
Friends and co-workers of Bragdon, Thomas and Finlay described them Monday as wonderful people and their sudden loss as an unimaginable tragedy.
Finlay, originally from Westbrook, had just started working for Jo Moser at Greenlight Studio in Portland six weeks ago. She made an indelible impression in a short time.
“She is just an exceptional person,” Moser said Monday.
She described Finlay as kind and theatrical, saying she dressed up like a genie to paint children’s faces at the studio on Halloween. Moser took a photograph of the smiling, costumed Finlay and has shared it on the studio’s Facebook page, where she is encouraging people to write their memories and thoughts. Friends are also welcome to come in, have coffee and talk about their loss.
“She was just a joyful soul,” Moser said. “It’s really sad. She will be missed.”
Shannon Thompson of Camden echoed those words as she remembered Bragdon, who grew up in the Rockland area. When Bragdon was 12 or 13, he and a friend volunteered to do community service work through the nonprofit agency that employed her. They would joke as they raked leaves and shoveled snow for the elderly.
“I remember him so distinctly. I just remember him for being so cheerful and funny. Just a bright spark,” Thompson said.
Years later, she and Bragdon reconnected while he bagged her groceries at a Rockland store and the two have remained friends, trading jokes on Facebook. He was a talented musician and much more, she said.
“I’m really impacted by his death. I think that a lot of people are,” she said. “What shone through for me was his sense of humor, this kind of joy in life and real open-heartedness. I think he’s just one of those people — he’s going to shine on and on and on.”
Thomas was a wedding photographer who ran Mat & Ash Photography with her business partner, Mat Garber.
“Words cannot even describe how broken-hearted I am after a tragedy has struck extremely close to home,” Garber wrote on the business’s Facebook page. “I thank you all for your support, thoughts and prayers at this time.”
A Gofundme page started by New Hampshire wedding planner Mindy Rossignol was raising money to help Thomas’ family with funeral expenses and to help Garber with business expenses. By Monday afternoon, people had contributed more than $2,600 to the fund.
“She just radiated kindness,” Rossignol said Monday afternoon. “Always smiling. One of those people you just meet and you’re instantly happy.”
Bozeman, the tenant who escaped the blaze, said the impact of the tragedy on the immediate community of friends and those in the neighborhood is clear.
“You can see the ripple effect across Portland,” Bozeman said.
Nedra Wheeler, a neighbor who knew the victims of the fire, said Monday she and others are planning a fundraiser Saturday in Portland and have started another account, also at Gofundme.com, for the victims of the fire.
“It’s good to feel like I could do something, it’s a helpless feeling,” Wheeler, who started the Noyes Street Fire Fund, said.
She said she and others were upset by characterizations of the home as a “party house” in searching for an explanation for the cause of the fire.
“That was totally unacceptable and a lot of people in this community were heartbroken,” Wheeler said in a telephone interview.
At the scene of the fire Sunday, about a dozen bouquets of flowers had been placed at the corner of Noyes and Freeman streets, across from the home, encircled by a perimeter of caution tape.