The more than 450 households in Bay Bridge Estates Mobile Home Park in Brunswick were hooked up to town water Tuesday after residents were without water for most of the day Friday.
Some residents say water issues are far too common at Bay Bridge — the largest mobile home park in the state — and are evident of larger mismanagement and infrastructure problems that impact mobile home communities.
The recent outage comes at a critical time for Brunswick’s mobile home residents, as many continue to advocate for rent control at the town level.
They also say a house fire at the park Friday, which started in part because of the water outage, demonstrates how vulnerable the community is.
The fire was reported around noon Friday on Tufton Street at a Bay Bridge residence. Believing that the cause of the outage was frozen pipes rather than empty tanks, a resident was attempting to thaw the water line under their house when the home caught fire, likely due to an open flame or high-heat device, Fire Chief Kenneth Brillant said.
Crews quickly extinguished the fire but had to remove a lot of insulation in the process, the fire department said Friday afternoon. There was no significant damage to the living area of the home, Brillant said.
Longtime Bay Bridge resident Lorri Centineo said communication between the park’s ownership company, Legacy Communities, and residents, was lacking. Many residents didn’t know the cause of the outage, prompting some residents to think frozen pipes must be the issue. The water ran out around 6 a.m. Friday, and ownership first alerted residents by email at approximately 12:45 p.m., residents said.
“If you’re a Mainer, especially if you live in a mobile home, if you wake up at 6 in the morning and you don’t have water, and it’s been below zero, but even below 17 degrees, you’re going to think your water is frozen,” Centineo said.
The occupants of the home were not injured, though the person who was under the house was evaluated for smoke inhalation at the scene and refused transport to the hospital.
Centineo and her neighbor, Marieke Giasson, said they’re used to having to store gallons of water in case a leak in the system or a storm leaves them without water.
“Up until now, if the power went out, we didn’t have water at all,” Centineo said. “So sometimes during storms, we might be without water, one, two, three days, sometimes more.”
Centineo and Giasson said this makes them worry about the safety of older residents and others who are vulnerable.
The town and Legacy Communities have been working to extend the public water line to the mobile home park to address longstanding water supply issues.
The water line on Old Bath Road was completed in September, but crews did not finish connecting residents to the Brunswick-Topsham Water District by the time cold weather hit, Town Manager Julia Henze said at Monday night’s Town Council meeting.
Legacy installed new submeters on all homes over the summer as a part of the connection project, but experienced “meter breaks and a drop in water pressure” with freezing temperatures this month, according to a prepared statement from Andrew Fells, the company’s president.
“Our team quickly assessed the situation and we coordinated with construction crews and vendors to locate and repair the leaks, and arranged for the Brunswick Fire Department and an additional vendor to bring in water,” he wrote.
In response to the recent shortage, the company expedited the connection to town water, hooking households up Tuesday.
Bay Bridge residents said as of Tuesday evening they were still being told to boil their water before use for the time being. They also said they are concerned about the financial strain of paying for town water, because they did not previously pay for the water provided at the park.
“We value our residents and apologize for the disruption,” Fell’s statement continued. “We will be meeting with residents in 2026 to explain the new water meter system, including information about water usage and billing. We are very grateful to the Brunswick Fire Department and town officials for their support and assistance for our community.”
Mobile home park residents have long advocated for action to address the cost of living in Brunswick’s seven mobile home parks, including Bay Bridge, the largest park in the state. Many have said during council meetings that they or their neighbors live on fixed incomes or otherwise cannot afford to keep up with rent increases.
Approximately 45,000 Mainers, 3% of the population, live in mobile home parks. The majority of these households are classified as low-income, according to a March 2025 report from the Genesis Fund.
Last month, the Brunswick Town Council approved a 180-day pause on rent increases at Brunswick’s mobile home parks while it considers potential rent stabilization policies.
Mobile home owners have to pay their lot rent in addition to their mortgage, utilities and upkeep. Moving a mobile home can cost thousands of dollars, leaving residents stuck if landlords decide to raise lot rents.
And recent efforts from state legislators have not had the teeth to protect mobile home park residents from rent gouging. One policy, LD 1723, dialed back from its original proposed form, requires owners to provide 90 days’ notice of lot rent or fee increases and establishes a process for mediation, but does not prevent owners from moving forward with rent increases.
The residents at Bay Bridge started sharing information with one another and advocating for changes at the town and state level in 2018, after they created a Facebook group in response to another water outage when the park was owned by a previous landlord.
“I’m potentially only a couple rent increases away from homeless myself,” Giasson said. “But we know that there are so, so many people here who are not in the position to be able to advocate for themselves.”
In September, the council appropriated $32,000 to fund a study on a potential rent stabilization ordinance for the parks that would assess the current state of Brunswick’s mobile home market and help guide policy decisions. The study will collect responses from both residents and landlords and is set to be complete by the end of the year.
“I think mobile home owners are starting to get together for the first time ever, to figure out what the future of our homes are going to be,” Centineo said.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Katie Langley can be reached at klangley@metln.org.