CARIBOU, Maine — Maine State Police and the state fire marshal’s office are investigating the death of a man found Thursday night inside a burning house in Caribou, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Caribou firefighters went to the house at 5 Lower Lyndon St. just before 10 p.m. and found the body, McCausland said early Friday afternoon.
The body of the deceased man, who was not identified, has been taken to the state medical examiner’s office in Augusta, where an autopsy was scheduled for Friday, McCausland said.
Lily Searles, a neighbor on a nearby street, said Friday afternoon that her husband, Wendall, saw a vehicle leave the residence shortly before the fire.
“Someone drove their truck in the driveway, left their lights on, and my husband said it looked like they might have walked in the house,” said Searles. “They were only there for a minute and then they got back in the truck, made a U-turn, and drove off. There were flames blowing out of the windows not too long after that.
“My husband looked out the window and said, ‘Holy cow, that’s a big ball of flame,’” she said.
Searles said she and her husband related to investigators what they had seen.
Searles said she has known the resident of the house for years.
“He was working for a farmer from 6 in the morning until 6 at night when this happened,” Searles said. “He worked the fall harvest just about every year since I’ve known him. I couldn’t say a bad thing about him; he’d do anything for you.”
Fire damage to the home was confined to the interior, according to McCausland.
Fire and police investigators, including some from the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit, were at the house on Friday afternoon, with that section of Lyndon Street blocked off and officers keeping the public away from the property.
No other information was released and officials at the scene Friday afternoon declined to comment.
BDN writer Christopher Bouchard contributed to this report.
