Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Food on stove cause
of Westbrook fire

MELANIE CREAMER

WESTBROOK — A fire Wednesday in a four-unit apartment building that injured one man and left some tenants without a place to live was caused by food left on a stove, said the city's fire inspector

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A Westbrook firefighter opens up a wall to see if fire has spread behind a kitchen stove at the scene of a blaze on Brown Street on Wednesday. Fire officials said some of the four-unit apartment building’s smoke detectors were missing or inoperative.

John Ewing/Staff Photographer

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The fire broke out just before 9 a.m. in a second-story unit at 261 Brown St.

James Larson, 21, who was sleeping in his apartment, was awakened by his brother, who noticed the fire. Larson was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation. No one else was injured.

Capt. Charles Jarrett, the city's fire inspector, said only one of the apartment's two smoke detectors was working. He said the battery was missing from the other smoke detector.

A smoke detector in a first-floor unit was missing from the living room wall, but a working detector was in the tenant's bedroom. In another unit, a smoke detector was also missing, Jarrett said.

The owner of the building, Bob Conley of South Portland, checked on his tenants Wednesday afternoon. He said seven people live in the building.

"I don't know what happened," Conley said. "I want to make sure my tenants are OK. That's all I care about right now."

In 2007, city officials cited Conley for not having a hard-wired smoke detector in one apartment, and for having a smoke detector that wasn't in the proper location.

In response to Thursday's fire, "the code officer and I will sit down and determine what to do in terms of a citation, or if any further citations are warranted," Jarrett said.

Portland firefighters assisted Westbrook fire and rescue workers in fighting the fire.

Jarrett said Larson's apartment sustained an estimated $50,000 in damage. Three of the four apartments were left uninhabitable.

The tenants below Larson are William Schofield, 57, a double amputee who lives with his son, Brian Schofield, 26. Schofield said his father was not at home when the fire started. He said his neighbor knocked on the door and woke him up.

"One minute you are set and everything is OK," Brian Schofield said, "the next minute, we are homeless."

The American Red Cross provided debit cards to tenants for food and clothing. The displaced tenants were offered three nights in a motel.

Staff Writer Melanie Creamer can be contacted at 791-6361 or at:

mcreamer@pressherald.com