LIMINGTON — Firefighters from 10 towns used bog water to extinguish a fast-moving blaze that destroyed a two-story house on Shaving Hill Road on Monday morning.
Five adults who were home when the fire started around 9:15 a.m. escaped without injury, said Fire Chief Michael Hartford.
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The state Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating to determine the cause of the blaze at 82 Shaving Hill Road, but it didn’t appear to be suspicious, Hartford said.
“These poor folks have lost everything, ” Hartford said as firefighters doused the smoldering ruins around 11 a.m. Red Cross volunteers were on the scene to help the residents.
Authorities were unsure of the name of the family who escaped the fire. Two men, identified by a neighbor as residents of the house, declined to speak with a reporter.
Steven Thistlewood, a deputy with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department, was the first officer on the scene.
“That fire went quick,” Thistlewood said. “When I got there, flames were shooting out of the second-floor windows on the right side of the house. It was cooking.”
Propane gas tanks near the rear exterior wall of the house vented when exposed to the fire, shooting flames 50 feet in the air, but they didn’t explode or cause the blaze, Hartford said.
Firefighters were called from several towns because many volunteers were unavailable on the Presidents Day weekend, Hartford said. Fire trucks lined the narrow, winding rural road, reducing it to one travel lane.
There is no hydrant in the neighborhood, so firefighters pumped water from a nearby bog and trucked it to the scene, where it was dumped into a portable pool set up at the end of the driveway.
A pumper truck sucked the fetid water from the pool to feed the hoses that doused the fire. Firefighters also used compressed foam to tame the blaze.
Bruce Rozett, a town selectman who lives across the road, said a family named Anderson lived at the house, including a woman who raised cockatiels that perished in the fire. The family’s dog escaped the blaze, but the whereabouts of the family’s cat were unknown Monday afternoon, Rozett said.
The house was a duplex, with two townhouse-style apartments. Hartford said it was unclear whether the other half of the house had tenants, but it wasn’t occupied at the time of the fire.
Sheriff’s records and phone listings indicate that Christopher Schildroth lived at the house.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at: kbouchard@pressherald.com
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