Hundreds of well-wishers lined roads from Augusta to Searsmont Friday as Lily Robbins made her way home after 24 weeks of treatment for injuries she sustained in the May 15 fire and explosion at her family’s lumber mill, which killed her father and injured her uncle.
A procession of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles escorted Robbins from the Augusta Civic Center to Searsmont, where a welcome party packed the Searsmont Fire Station.
Robbins, 23, is a volunteer EMT with Searsmont EMS. She had been working at Mosaic restaurant in Camden since it opened in 2023 to help support herself through college, and she had graduated from the University of Maine a week before the explosion. Like so many other volunteers who had no idea what they were heading into that day, she responded to the call.
Mill employees turned hoses on the fire before the first trucks arrived, according to a federal report. As crews worked the fire inside a silo filled with wood shavings, the silo exploded, releasing a massive fireball that killed Morrill firefighter Andrew Cross, 27. Searsmont Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Woodbury, 76, died June 14 of injuries sustained in the blast. In all, 299 firefighters and other first responders from 46 departments across four Maine counties responded.
Badly burned in the explosion, Robbins ended up in Massachusetts General Hospital’s burn center along with her father, Alden Robbins, the company’s vice president and manager of lumber sales, and her uncle, James A. Robbins, its president. Her father died of his injuries July 2 and her uncle is still recovering. The Robbins family members were some of the first to respond to the fire.
Eleven other firefighters were injured, five of them seriously, along with two EMS providers and mill employees, according to the report. Among them were Searsmont Fire Chief James Ames, who was treated and released at the scene, and Thomas Wolf, a Searsmont firefighter and Robbins Lumber employee. Sarah Tompkins, a farmer who sold produce at the Camden Farmers Market and served as Searsmont’s EMS chief, remains in the hospital after numerous surgeries.
The mill, founded in 1881 and owned by the fifth generation of the Robbins family — Alden, James and their sister, Catherine Robbins-Halsted — is one of the biggest employers and economic engines of Waldo County. It returned to full operation May 26.
A GoFundMe campaign to support Lily Robbins’ recovery had raised $81,970 of a $90,000 goal from 542 donors by 4:45 p.m. Saturday. It was organized by Mosaic owner Hannah Scott, who also helped organize a weeklong restaurant fundraiser in June with a dozen other businesses.
Ames and Wolf attended Lily Robbins’ homecoming Friday, as did members of Cross’s family.
With her mother, Amy Robbins, nearby, and between visiting with family, friends, neighbors and colleagues gathered inside the Searsmont Fire Station’s cafeteria, Lily Robbins stepped aside momentarily for a one-on-one interview with the Midcoast Villager to discuss the ordeal — and her resolve and optimism that have kept her going through the pain and grief.
The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity:
Midcoast Villager: I’m sorry for the loss of your father. I lost mine in August. Losing a parent is a profound experience.
Lily Robbins: There’s nothing really like it. It’s taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know about myself, or grief. I never lost someone that close to me, so it’s been really hard navigating that and my own physical healing journey at the same time. It complicated things.
I just feel really lucky, but there’s also an element of wondering why. Why me? Why not Wayne (Woodbury), or Andrew (Cross), or my dad? I wish they got an opportunity to come home too. There’s a lot of mixed emotions.
How does it feel to come home, especially to a welcome like this?
It feels incredible. I’ve lived in this town my entire life, and there’s no place like home. And Searsmont is one special place. We just have incredible neighbors, an incredible community. I feel so loved.
The drive from Augusta was surreal. I just feel grateful for everyone that came out today and all the support I’ve been given, not just today, but the whole summer.
Is this your first time home since May?
I actually came home for a quick 12-hour visit to Searsmont for my dad’s funeral. I was fortunate enough to be discharged temporarily so I could be there on that day. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for anything.
Now, I’m probably going to take some time just to heal and recover and stay at home. Spend a lot of time with loved ones. I have five little siblings, and they are just the absolute joy of my life. I adore them. So I am just looking forward to soaking up every moment with them, getting outside, spending time with my dogs, my cat. A lot of time just resting, enjoying the Maine fall. You know, hunting season’s coming up.
Are you going to hunt?
We’ll see. I would like to, but I still have some hand injuries that may make hunting a challenge.
Are you comfortable talking about the nature of your injuries and treatment?
Yeah. It was a really, really long road. I had burns covering over a third of my body. They estimated 30% to 40%, which is pretty significant. I was unable to walk for a really long time. So there were a lot of long, really hard days.
Thankfully, I’ve had the most incredible amount of support. I got hundreds and hundreds of cards from all over the country. To anyone who sent me a card, I just want to say I read every single word of every single card, and I’ve kept them all. So if I didn’t write back to you, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to, it’s because I couldn’t keep up with all of them. Every single one made me smile.
I think staying hopeful has been the most important thing for me. It’s been really hard to, because not only am I dealing with physical pain and suffering, but I’m also dealing with a lot of mental trauma and grief. So staying hopeful and staying positive has been the most important priority for me.
I’ve done that through humor. I was pranking the nurses at Mass General. I was being ridiculous, but that’s what got me through each day, was laughing and smiling. It was not possible without family and friends, for sure.
You’re an emergency medical technician. What was it like being a patient instead of a caregiver?
You know, it’s really interesting. I’ve spent thousands of hours in an ambulance, and I never pictured myself being the one on that stretcher, and I was so used to caring for others that it was actually really hard for me to be taken care of. There was a degree of stubbornness that I had where I was like, “No, I can do it myself.” It was hard for me to let myself be helped in a lot of ways, and a lot of that was just me needing to get over myself a little bit and realize that I do need to be helped.
The day of, I was in the back of the ambulance telling them exactly what I needed. I need oxygen, I need pain relief, and you need to intubate me before I lose my airway. That’s what I told the paramedic in the back, and that’s what I told the doctors at the ER. I knew exactly what I was going through physically. I knew that there was a severe, severe threat to my life. As soon as the accident happened, I was like, I need help, medical help.
It’s not something I ever wanted to experience, but I think if I ever go back to EMS — and I do plan on working in health care in the future — the experience has given me a lot more empathy and compassion. I know how uncomfortable that stretcher is now.
How do you feel about going back into emergency medical services?
It’s hard to imagine life not on an ambulance just because I loved it so much. But there is a degree of trauma and it’s just, it’s hard. I picture myself struggling to go to a fire or struggling to deal with a burn patient just because it might bring back memories of what I dealt with. But in that same regard, I want to be there for my community. I love giving back to the community. It raised me.
My plans are to go to medical school eventually. I studied zoology (as an undergraduate), but I was on the pre-medical track and my goal was always to go to medical school. It’s postponed now, but I have not given up on it. In fact, I’m probably more motivated.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about your father?
Oh, my gosh. I mean, he’s the reason I got into EMS. He was on the volunteer fire department here in Searsmont when I was a kid. And I remember just seeing his selfless spirit and thinking, “Wow, look how much he’s doing for the community. I want to be able to do that for my community too.”
My dad was just an incredible, incredible person, and he’ll be missed. He left a big hole. The grief is unimaginable. I still haven’t processed it. He left behind six young kids and my beautiful mother, and I’m just grateful for the time I had with him and the lessons he taught me because he always taught me, if you ever fall down, you’ve just got to get back up again. There’s no other choice.
I think that it’s kind of the spirit I’ve had throughout all of this. I’ve had no other option but to get back up on my feet and keep going. Everyone says, “Oh, you’re so strong.” But I kind of have to be. There’s no other choice.
How are your uncle, and your EMS colleague Sarah Tompkins?
He’s doing well. Sarah’s also recovering well. I’ve seen both of them in the last few days. We shared some good moments. I look forward to the day when they come home.
Is there a question I didn’t ask that you would like to answer?
I just want to express — again — thank you to my community. Thank you to the whole state of Maine. This support has been unimaginable from day one. People have shown up in ways I never thought possible.