CUMBERLAND

Car crashes, catches fire, backs up traffic for miles

A New York City couple escaped serious injury when their rental car crashed and caught fire Sunday evening on Interstate 295 in Cumberland, causing traffic to be backed up for miles.

The accident occurred around 5:15 p.m. when a rented 2011 Subaru Forester driven by 29-year-old Erin Savner swerved and hit a sport utility vehicle that was hauling a trailer. Savner’s vehicle bounced off a newly installed median fence, spun around and came to rest in the breakdown lane. The couple fled the car when fire broke out.

Maine State Police Trooper Doug Cropper said both northbound lanes had to be shut down for about 30 minutes because of several small explosions generated by the fire, which destroyed the Forester.

Cropper said the closure caused traffic to be backed up for several miles from mile marker 13 in Cumberland. The highway reopened shortly after 6 p.m.

Savner and her passenger, 28-year-old Davis Beck, were examined by ambulance crews but did not need hospitalization. They were on their way to Owls Head.

No one was injured in the SUV, which sustained minor damage.

CASTINE

Training ship returns home after sailing for 60 days

Maine Maritime Academy’s training ship is returning home after 60 days at sea.

The 500-foot State of Maine was due to arrive in its home port of Castine on Sunday night. It cast off on May 3 and made port calls in Norfolk, Va.; Valetta, Malta; Civitavecchia, Italy; and Cobh, Ireland, before arriving in Portland on Saturday.

Students’ parents were invited to sail aboard the ship on the final leg from Portland to Castine on Sunday.

In all, the ship sailed about 11,000 nautical miles under the command of Capt. Leslie Eadie III with 230 students and 55 crew members on board.

NEW HARBOR

Trunk from 1635 shipwreck now on display at museum

Maine park officials say a 376-year-old horsehide trunk that survived a shipwreck in the 1600s is on display at Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site in New Harbor.

The trunk was loaned by John Cogswell of Buena Vista, Colo., a direct descendant of the same-named American colonist who first owned it. In seven years, the trunk may become part of the Colonial Pemaquid museum’s permanent collection.

State park historian Tom Desjardin said the museum has a centuries-old barrel that once lined a well near the waterfront from which colonist John Cogswell may have drunk, and now it has Cogswell’s personal trunk that went down with the ship.

In 1635, the English galleon Angel Gabriel went to the bottom of Pemaquid Harbor in the “Great Colonial Hurricane,” known as one of the most powerful storms ever to occur along the Maine coast.

PORTLAND

Southbound exit on-ramp will be closed for eight hours

The southbound on-ramp at Exit 48 of the Maine Turnpike will be closed from 9 p.m. tonight until 5 a.m. Tuesday for bridge reconstruction. No vehicles will be able to get on the toll highway from the Riverside Street interchange during the eight-hour stretch.

The northbound on-ramp at the exit has been closed as part of the reconstruction project, which is scheduled to be finished by November.

The Maine Turnpike Authority says the latest closure is needed for repaving, part of a bridge reconstruction project. Electronic message boards on the turnpike will announce the closing.

Both northbound and southbound drivers wishing to exit at Riverside Street will be able to do so.

Maine high school students attend camp for dentistry

Lots of kids go to summer camp to sail, play basketball and go camping.

But a group of 28 high school students in Maine is going to camp this week to learn about dentistry. The University of New England’s second Dental Careers Exploration Camp began Sunday and runs through Wednesday at the school’s Portland campus.

At the camp, students will learn about dental techniques, including preparing teeth, taking X-rays and placing sutures. Students will spend one day job-shadowing at a local dentist’s office.

The University of New England’s College of Dental Medicine is due to open in the fall of 2012. The school’s dean, James Koelbl, says he hopes the camp will inspire the next generation of dentists.

AUGUSTA

Applications for any-deer permit lottery now online

Maine wildlife officials say applications for this year’s any-deer permit lottery are now available online.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will issue 26,390 permits for fall deer hunting season.

Online applications are due by midnight Aug. 15, and paper applications have to be submitted by July 29. The drawing will be held in September. Deer hunting season runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 26, with a residents-only hunting day set for Oct. 29.

SACO

Residents escape fire at mobile home park

Two residents at the Blue Haven Mobile Home Park escaped from a fire that destroyed their trailer Sunday night.

Saco Deputy Chief Robert Martin said the fire was contained to the trailer at 14 Clayton Dr. and did not threaten other homes in the park. The two occupants were not injured.

The cause of the fire, which was reported around 7:30 p.m., is being investigated.