Firefighters saved a 200-year-old home in a three-alarm fire that erupted about 1 p.m. Tuesday at 114 County Road (Route 22) in Gorham.

“The guys did a fantastic job,” Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said Wednesday.

A passerby, Mark Laigle of Limington, said flames were 100 feet in the air. Laigle, a volunteer firefighter in Limington, saw the blaze while en route to the Maine Mall.

“I thought the whole place was going to go,” Laigle said.

Fire damage was contained to the ell at the rear of the building. Lefebvre said the main house sustained smoke and water damage, rendering it uninhabitable. Lefebvre didn’t have an estimate of the damage. He said the cause of the fire is undetermined, but not suspicious.

Lefebvre said two Gorham firefighters suffered minor injuries and were transported to Maine Medical Center but were released. Dogs and cats were saved from the burning building. Laigle saw a firefighter carry one dog to safety.

Lefebvre said no one was home when the fire broke out.

According to Gorham tax records, the home on five acres is owned by David and Mikel Garand. They couldn’t be reached by telephone Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.

Firefighters from several communities battled the blaze at the historic, two-story wooden farmhouse, estimated to date to about 1800.

“There were several loud explosions,” Laigle said, adding that debris was flying.

Laigle said there was heavy smoke coming out of the house. “They put a crew in the main house and pushed the fire out,” said Laigle, calling the firefighters effort a “textbook” attack.

Two Gorham Middle School students who live nearby, Danielle Roy, eighth grade, and Breanna Hoyt, seventh grade, watched from across the street. “I saw black smoke,” Hoyt said, when she first saw the fire.

Roy said when she arrived the “back of the house was burned off.” Roy said she knew the family who lived there. “I was shocked,” Roy said.

Lefebvre said Gorham was assisted by firefighters from Buxton, Hollis, Scarborough, Saco, Standish, Westbrook and Windham.

Authorities closed the road from South Street to Deering Road.

Capt. Gene Dunn of Westbrook said the closest hydrant was about three-quarters of a mile away at Hansen’s Farm Market. A Scarborough truck pumped water from a hydrant at the edge of the pond, which is 12 feet deep.

“We never ran out of water,” Lefebvre said.

Dunn said firefighters unrolled between 3,000-5,000 feet of 4-inch hose. Westbrook Deputy Chief Thaddeus Soltys, who said the fire marshal was at the scene, said tankers from Gorham, Saco, Hollis and Buxton were also hauling water to the home.

Lefebvre said there was a chimney fire at the home several days ago, but he said it was unrelated to Tuesday’s fire.

JoAnn Reardon of Standish grew up in the house where her father, the late Don Sanborn, owned a dairy farm. She said a Capt. Curtis built the house as a gift for his bride. A real estate agent who once sold the house, Linda Griffin of Pleasant River Properties, Windham, said the Sanborn farm was well known, as it once provided jobs and milk for the area. She said the house has federal-style details.

Richard Shiers, a neighbor contacted Tuesday evening, said an early member of the Sanborn family had worked for Curtis at the farm before buying the property.

“It was the first house built on this side of the Stroudwater,” Shiers said.