After spending five nights at the Howard Johnson motel in Portland, Deb McDowell, who was displaced from her Westbrook apartment after a fire broke out early Friday morning, finally moved back Wednesday into a place of her own.

“It was a terrible experience,” said McDowell, 51, whose apartment in Riverview Terrace, a public and elderly housing project on Knight Street, was across the hall from where the fire started.

The fire, which was reported around 2 a.m., erupted when a woman was smoking too close to her oxygen tank, according to Sgt. Ken Grimes of the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

The woman, identified as Gloria Petitpas, 57, was visiting her daughter, Tina Breed, 37, who lives in the complex.

Although six units, one of which was vacant, were damaged by smoke from the fire and water from the sprinkler system, firefighters managed to contain the fire to the one unit. All of the residents were able to move back into their apartments Friday afternoon, except for the five, including McDowell, who lived on the hall where the fire started.

Though McDowell is returning to Riverview Terrace, she won’t be able to move back into the same apartment, and many of her belongings are damaged beyond repair. Still, she’s thankful that everyone got out safely and that she will be able to move back to the complex, where she enjoys the people and the view of the Presumpscot River.

“You have to take it with a grain of salt,” she said Wednesday. “Any place you go, you can make it home.”

McDowell, who is on disability, still doesn’t know how she will be able to buy new furniture and clothes, but she said she is going to take it one day at a time and that “eventually, everything will go back to some sort of normalcy.”

In order to aid those who were affected most by the fire, Westbrook Housing has set up a fund, which is accepting donations of money and gift cards to supermarkets and pharmacies, to help them purchase the items they need to get their lives back on track. Susan Eldridge, deputy director of Westbrook Housing, said as far as she knows, none of the displaced residents had renter’s insurance.

Westbrook Fire Chief Gary Littlefield said about 60 residents were evacuated within an hour of the start of the fire. They were transported by bus to Larrabee Village on Liza Harmon Drive in Westbrook. According to Eldridge, the remaining four displaced residents can expect to move back into their apartments in February.

Westbrook received assistance from Portland, Scarborough, Falmouth, Windham, Gorham and Cape Elizabeth fire departments. At least 12 ambulances and 50 firefighters reported to the scene.

Despite having to endure the trauma of evacuation, residents were grateful for the work of the firefighters and the housing agency.

“I can’t give enough praise to the fire department and Westbrook Housing. They got medication and everybody’s pets. They were just fantastic,” said Jackie Giles, 77, as she sat in front of her television Friday afternoon, just after moving back into her apartment.

“It could have been a lot worse,” she said.

Giles said fire alarms going off at the complex is a frequent occurrence that she often ignores, but, she said, this time, “something told me to get up.”

“I was going to sleep through this one like I did the last one, until my neighbor said, ‘Get out. The building’s burning.’ So I put some slacks on,” said Virginia Oates, 80, who has lived at Riverview Terrace less than a year.

“You don’t take them seriously,” said Oates, who added that she has learned a lesson from the incident.

Jim McGowan, 60, said he will be sure to keep a backpack full of supplies near the door, in case something happens again.

State Fire Marshal John Dean recognized the work of the firefighters when he visited the site Friday afternoon.

“This is a very difficult task,” he said about evacuating the many elderly and disabled residents. “It’s a success story.”

Dean said the incident was not just an example of an efficient fire department, but also of the importance of keeping buildings up to code and maintaining smoke alarms and sprinkler systems. He said the Sheetrock in the ceilings kept the fire contained to one unit.

Dean said it also provided an opportunity to talk about the hazards of smoking while hooked up to an oxygen tank.

“People have to understand it’s a very dangerous practice,” he said. According to Dean, there have been four deaths in past four years in Maine in fires that were caused by oxygen tanks ignited while someone was smoking – and that person is usually the one hooked to the tank.

Dean said if people on oxygen cannot quit smoking, they need to do it outside. Inside, the tank creates an “oxygen-enriched atmosphere,” which, he said, makes it more likely for a fire to start and intensifies the blaze.

“Somewhere along the line, people need to take responsibility for their actions,” he said.

John Gallagher, executive director of Westbrook Housing, said he will be discussing banning smoking in all of the agency’s developments with the board of commissioners. He said two new developments were made non-smoking, but smoking is still allowed in the other six.

A CLOSER LOOK

To assist victims of the Riverview Terrace fire, Westbrook Housing is accepting monetary donations, as well as gift cards in small denominations to Shaw’s, Hannaford’s, CVS and Rite Aid.

Donations can be sent to Westbrook Services Corp., c/o Westbrook Housing, please note “fire victims,” 30 Liza Harmon Drive, Westbrook, ME 04092. Donations can also be dropped off at that address.

Arlene Greenier, 75, works on a word search at Larrabee Village, where she and nearly 60 residents of Riverview Terrace were transported to after a fire broke out at their Westbrook housing complex early Friday morning.Nothing is salvagable from Tina Breed’s apartment at Riverview Terrace in Westbrook, where a fire started when her mother, Gloria Petitpas, was smoking a cigarette while hooked up to an oxygen tank. “People have to understand, it’s a very dnagerous practice,” said State Fire Marshal John Dean, when he visited the site Friday.Marie Moreau, 93, reacts to seeing one of her neighbors for the first time since returning to her apartment at Riverview Terrace Friday afternoon.