A vacant, 144-year-old house in Bangor was badly damaged in a fire early Tuesday morning.
The fire at 67 Lincoln St. started well before 4:59 a.m., when the Bangor Fire Department was called there, Assistant Fire Chief Chandler Corriveau said.
It was vacant and placarded by the city in 2017, with no water or sewer connected to it, as of July, according to city records. There are issues with the foundation on two sides of the house.
There appeared to be a significant delay from when the fire started and when someone noticed it and reported it, Corriveau said. It likely went unnoticed for a while.
Firefighters saw a “heavy volume of fire” when they arrived, with flames coming out of windows on all three floors of the house, he said.
Crews went into the house but had to retreat because there was so much fire. Firefighters fought the blaze from the exterior until it was safe to go inside.
They checked all floors of the house and found no one inside, Corriveau said. The department treats all vacant homes as potentially occupied, he said.
The fire was extinguished at 6:23 a.m. and the state fire marshal’s office is investigating its cause. The house, which property records indicate was built in 1880, was not insured, Corriveau said.
No firefighters were injured.
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated the age of the Lincoln Street home.