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• Series summary: Maine pays dearly as families are ruined by alcohol abuse

Alcohol contributes to hundreds of deaths of Maine people each year. The following is a selected listing of deaths from fires, accidents, motor vehicle crashes and suicides from 1997.

In each of the fatal fires, alcohol played a role in either causing the fire or preventing victims from escaping their burning homes.

FIRES

Jan. 31, 1997, 2:51 a.m.

Three people - Joseph Levesque, 33; Joseph Levesque, 5; and 2-year-old Dustin Levesque - died in a fire that started in the living-room couch of a mobile home in Millinocket. Investigators say a discarded cigarette likely started the fire. Only Laurie Levesque, wife and mother to the deceased, was able to escape; her attempts to save her children were blocked by heavy smoke. The elder Joseph Levesque's blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent.

March 19, 1997

An improperly discarded cigarette was blamed in the fire that killed Kevin Killam, 35, in Troy. He and three friends had been drinking and smoking in a 12-by-7-foot camper trailer. Two of the friends left before the fire broke out; a third woke up and escaped the heavy smoke. Killam's body was discovered near the trailer's door. His blood-alcohol level was 0.34 percent.

ACCIDENTS
These are among the 1997 victims with the highest blood-alcohol content:

A 21-year-old man died in a fall from the Casco Bay Bridge in Portland on Aug. 3. His blood-alcohol level was 0.40 percent.

A 66-year-old man died in a fall down stairs at his Old Orchard Beach home on April 8. His blood-alcohol level was 0.30 percent.

A 30-year-old man died when he crashed his snowmobile into a tree in Westmanland on Feb. 3. His blood-alcohol level was 0.28 percent.

A 35-year-old man overdosed on drugs and alcohol in Briston on May 13. His blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent.

A 51-year-old man died after crashing his snowmobile into the shore of a lake in Windham on Feb. 16. His blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent.

A 35-year-old man died after crashing his snowmobile into the short of China Lake on Feb. 1. His blood-alcohol level was 0.24 percent.

A 35-year-old man died in a fall from an embankment in Augusta on May 2. His blood-alcohol level was 0.22 percent.

A 29-year-old man died after crashing his snowmobile into a tree in Avon on Feb. 26. His blood-alcohol level was 0.19 percent.

MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS
These are among the 1997 victims with the highest blood-alcohol content:

A 58-year-old man died when the pickup he was driving collided with another truck in Belfast on May 13. His blood-alcohol level was 0.39 percent.

A 31-year-old male pedestrian was killed after being hit by a car in Houlton on Jan. 14. His blood-alcohol level was 0.32 percent.

A 36-year-old woman was killed when the car she was driving collided with a truck in Topsfield on July 24. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.30 percent.

A 45-year-old man was killed when the car he was driving struck a tree in Durham on Jan. 17. His blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent.

A 59-year-old woman died when the car she was driving collided with another car in Blaine on Jan. 30. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent.

A 27-year-old man died when the car he was driving struck a utility pole in Litchfield on April 13. His blood-alcohol level was 0.26 percent.

A 31-year-old woman died when the car in which she was a passenger struck a tree in Scarborough on May 16. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.25 percent.

A 36-year-old man died when the pickup he was driving rolled into a tree in Madison on Aug. 14. His blood-alcohol level was 0.25 percent.

SUICIDES
These are among the 1997 victims with the highest blood-alcohol content:

A 45-year-old woman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Houlton on May 15. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.35 percent.

A 40-year-old man died in a fall down stairs at his home in Lewiston on May 4. His blood-alcohol level was 0.32 percent.

A 55-year-old woman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in North Waterford on April 27. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.31 percent.

A 55-year-old man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Benton on June 14. His blood-alcohol level was 0.29 percent.

A 37-year-old man shot himself in Kittery on Jan. 17. His blood-alcohol level was 0.27 percent.

A 29-year-old man hanged himself in Norway on Jan. 13. His blood-alcohol level was 0.24 percent.

A 51year-old man overdosed on drugs and alcohol in Bangor on May 23. His blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent.

A 35-year-old man died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Saco on Jan. 13. His blood-alcohol level was 0.09 percent.

Sources: The state Fire Marshal's Office and the state Medical Examiner's Office.