ROCKLAND, Maine — Firefighters extinguished a blaze Thursday afternoon at a seven-unit apartment complex on Main Street that heavily damaged a residence.
No injuries were reported from the fire, which started on the rear first-floor apartment. No one was in the apartment when the fire broke out. Some residents who were in occupied apartments heard the fire and smoke alarms and called 911.
Fire Chief Adam Miceli said it was fortunate that the calls came in as quickly as they did because fire damage to the apartment was significant and was nearly ready to spread to the upper floors.
Joanne Sausedo said that when the fire alarm activated, she thought at first that it was just an error. She said she did not smell anything, but then smoke began pouring up through the floorboards of the second-floor apartment.
She said she made it down the stairs and out the front door through heavy smoke.
Miceli said crews were able to get water on the fire quickly and stop the fire from spreading in the walls, which the chief said would have resulted in a much more severe fire due to the age, construction and “somewhat maze-like configuration” of the building. He praised the efforts of the Rockland crew and a crew from Rockport that responded quickly and helped to contain the blaze. Thomaston fire department also sent members to the scene.
The cause of the fire has not determined, but it is not considered suspicious, the chief said. The state fire marshal was planning to send an investigator to the scene Friday.
Officials with the Knox County Emergency Management Agency contacted the American Red Cross to assist tenants who were displaced by the fire. It could not immediately be determined how many people lived in the building. Miceli said half the residents were able to find housing in local motels with the help of the Red Cross while the remainder of the residents arranged for housing with family and friends.
The fire damage was limited to one apartment. Because the landlord was unable to shut off electricity only to the fire-damaged apartment, the complex was closed off for the evening, but the residents in the other apartments were expected to be able to reoccupy their apartments as soon as the electrical work was completed.
While firefighters were at the building, police blocked Main Street by North Main Street to reroute traffic.
The three-story wooden building is owned by Erik Nelson and Dona Bergen of Tenants Harbor, according to city records. The property is assessed at $265,000.
The chief said the fire was similar to one that struck an adjacent large wooden apartment complex in June 2011, in which the fire was reported and stopped “in the nick of time.”