BELFAST, Maine — When Joanna Glidden of Belfast realized there was a fire in her Church Street apartment Tuesday night, she hobbled around the multiunit building with a cast on her leg to tell her neighbors to evacuate.
Her warning worked, fire officials said Wednesday morning — Glidden, who suffered burns on her forearms, was the only resident to be injured in the fire.
“I was falling asleep in this bedroom right here,” Edward Medicke, who rents an upstairs unit, said outside the charred house in downtown Belfast. “I heard my name being yelled outside. I opened the door, and [Glidden] came into my apartment. She said there was a fire, and I immediately dialed 911.”
He said his home and possessions seemed to be largely unscathed by the fire. The same could not be said of the two apartments in the addition that was built in 1920 on the house, which was constructed in 1824. Glidden’s three-bedroom apartment was destroyed.
On Wednesday morning, a colorful crocheted afghan hung out one of the windows, its glass panes burned out by the fire. Burned children’s toys, photos and other belongings lay in a heap on the ground outside.
Glidden believes that her two dogs and seven birds perished in the fire.
Chief Jim Richards of the Belfast Fire Department said the fire call came in at 10:10 p.m. Tuesday, just a few hours after he had gotten back to the city after a three-week vacation. When he got to the burning building, “fire was coming out all the windows,” he said. The tenants were outside in the street and the firefighters — about 30 of them altogether — got to work. Firefighters from Morrill and Belmont also assisted, Richards said.
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the fire, and an inspector from the fire marshal’s office was going to check it out, Richards said.
“We had plenty of water and plenty of help,” Richards said. “It was just a stubborn fire. A lot of heat. I didn’t think we’d stop it, to tell you the truth.”
But firefighters did manage to keep the fire from spreading to the older part of the house.
Owner Alan Wood said when he got the call about the fire, his first concern was for his tenants. When he arrived at the house, he was impressed when he saw the firefighters in action.
“You see the professionalism of the Fire Department. It was just astounding,” he said. “These are people who have to get up to work the next day.”
Wood said the building was insured, but he didn’t know if his tenants had renters’ insurance. He believed the tenants who could not stay in their apartments were staying with family in the area and said that he would try to help them, too.
“It’s a relief that people aren’t badly hurt, and that the building wasn’t completely destroyed,” he said.