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

August 10, 2012

Dispatches

From staff and news services

AUGUSTA

Former Portland fire chief nominated to state position

Acting state Fire Marshal Joe Thomas has been nominated to take the job full time by Public Safety Commissioner John Morris.

Thomas would replace former Fire Marshal John Dean, who resigned from the post at the beginning of the year.

"I have been impressed with his council and management of the Fire Marshal's Office, and am pleased he has accepted this challenge," Morris said.

Thomas joined the Fire Marshal's Office in 2000 after a 28-year career with the Portland Fire Department, including eight as chief.

Thomas must be confirmed by the state Senate.

NAPLES

Fire that started on stovetop burns Hawthorn Road home

Fire destroyed a home at 14 Hawthorn Road in Naples on Thursday.

The fire, accidentally ignited by something left on a hot stove, was burning through the roof of the single-story home when the first fire company arrived at 9:45 a.m., said Chief Chris Pond.

Firefighters from Sebago, Baldwin, Casco and Harrison helped fight the fire, which was brought under control in an hour, though firefighters remained on scene for about four hours making sure it was out, Pond said.

Nobody was home at the time and nobody was injured fighting the fire, he said.

JONESPORT

Crew of fishing boat rescued after one injured by fire

One mariner was taken to the hospital with burns Thursday after a fishing boat caught fire and its three-person crew abandoned ship into a life raft.

The Promise Land, a 48-foot fishing boat from Eastern Harbor, had left port Thursday morning with two men and a boy aboard. At 11 a.m., the Maine State Police got a cellphone call that the boat was on fire and the crew had to abandon ship.

The Coast Guard dispatched two rescue boats from Jonesport, as well as Falcon and Jayhawk helicopters from Cape Cod. It also dispatched the Cutter Moray from Jonesport.

The search was hampered initially because the crew was unable to provide a precise location and the location provided by the cellphone company was not accurate, the Coast Guard said.

Also complicating the search was heavy fog that lowered visibility.

Other boats were able to see a column of smoke and helped direct the Coast Guard to the area 15 miles southeast of Jonesport.

The boat was still burning Thursday afternoon and the Coast Guard expected it would be a total loss.

The crew was brought back to Jonesport and the injured fisherman was taken to a hospital with moderate burns, the Coast Guard said.

The fire started in the forward part of the boat but the Coast Guard had not identified the cause Thursday.

 

Entangled sea turtle gets Coast Guard assist

The Coast Guard came to the aid of an entangled sea turtle Thursday south of Great Duck Island.

Crew members aboard the cutter Moray noticed a lobster buoy moving erratically in the water near the boat while conducting a routine boarding of a fishing vessel.

The crew pulled alongside the buoy Wednesday and noticed the turtle entangled in the line and unable to swim away or dive.

They helped out the turtle and watched it swim off.

The Moray is an 87-foot patrol boat based in Jonesport.

PORTLAND

Former Lewiston officer escapes jail time for assault

A former Lewiston police officer accused of assaulting his girlfriend has pleaded no contest to two domestic violence misdemeanors, but avoided jail time.

A judge in Portland on Wednesday sentenced Timothy Darnell, 48, to a pair of concurrent year-long jail terms, but suspended the entire sentence.

Darnell was also ordered to have no contact with his ex-girlfriend and complete counseling and a batterer's treatment program.

(Continued on page 2)

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