KENDUSKEAG, Maine — A fire broke out at an empty house early Monday and required mutual aid from 10 neighboring communities to extinguish, Kenduskeag fire Lt. Corey Cowperthwaite said.
“It was a fully involved structure fire that produced a lot of heat,” the lieutenant said.
The fire at 4016 Broadway was called in by someone driving past about 2:30 a.m. Monday. Cowperthwaite lives just north of the fire scene and said it was burning so hot that when he drove past to get a firetruck from the station, “I could feel the heat through the window.”
Finding water was one problem and required aid from nearby communities that have water tankers, Cowperthwaite said.
The message sent was, “We want water and we want it now,” the lieutenant said.
Kenduskeag and Corinth fire departments arrived first and “crews from Glenburn, Hudson, Bradford, Charleston, Garland, Levant, Stetson, Hermon and Carmel were called in to assist,” according to the Kenduskeag Fire Department’s Facebook page.
When the first fire crews arrived, “the whole front of the building was fully involved and it had started on the detached garage,” Cowperthwaite said. “There was a very significant amount of heat that kept us at bay.”
The building was pretty much flattened by the blaze, which is being investigated by the fire marshal’s office.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever know the cause of the fire because of the extent of the damage,” the fire lieutenant said.
Nobody was hurt and the home was not occupied at the time of the fire. The homeowners live in a trailer located on the same property behind the burned home, Cowperthwaite said.
Cowperthwaite posted a picture of the fire from a distance on the department’s Facebook page and it shows flames shooting high into the night sky.
Capital Ambulance, G&H Ambulance and Mayo Ambulance also went to the house to provide emergency care to firefighters if needed, the department’s post stated.