SWANVILLE, Maine — Firefighters from seven communities had to contend with high winds and freezing temperatures as well as flames Monday night when they battled a stubborn fire that ultimately consumed a 19th century farmhouse.
“It was called in as a chimney fire,” longtime Belfast Fire Chief Jim Richards said Tuesday about the call that came in at about 4:50 p.m. the previous day. “When we got there, fire was coming out of the windows and the wind was blowing a gale. The temperature was about five above zero. It was rough.”
William West, who owned the home at 109 Chandler Road in Swanville, was able to escape the burning home without injury. None of the roughly 35 or so firefighters from Belfast, Monroe, West Frankfort, Frankfort Village, Morrill, Searsport and Winterport was injured, either, while spending hours trying to put out the fire and keep it out.
“Just hurt feelings on account of it being so cold and windy,” Richards said. “Nothing seemed to go right.”
Swanville does not have its own fire department and relies on Belfast as its primary department. Richards said he activated the mutual aid when he realized how intense the fire in the old, story-and-a-half structure was. Many of those other departments were busy rolling their tankers back and forth along the six miles of road that separated the burning home from the water source at the dam at Swan Lake.
“We had at least nine tankers and a narrow road,” Richards said. “Luckily, we did have room enough to pass one another.”
It was so cold out that the firefighters had to keep the water in the pumps circulating so it wouldn’t freeze up, he said. The building had a metal roof, which made it harder to get at the fire, Richards said.
After about six hours, the firefighters figured they had finished the job, and went back to their stations to clean up at about midnight. Richards said he’d had just an hour and a half of sleep when he was called out again at 3:10 a.m. because the fire had rekindled. Firefighters doused the smoldering home with about 1,200 gallons of water and then left again, only to get called back to the scene a third time at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Crews spent a lot of time working to keep a big barn about 18 feet away from the house from igniting.
That time, Richards said, they put 6,000 gallons on the home, which has not rekindled. He said he thought the home was insured, and does not believe that the homeowner lost any animals. A wet cat did come streaking out of the building Monday night more than an hour after the firefighters had started to do their job, the chief said.
“Everybody did a good job, everybody worked hard,” he said. “It was a hard fire to put out. It was a long, hard night, and a long morning. It was a chimney fire that went bad.”