PHIPPSBURG

An alert neighbor who happens to be a firefighter helped limit the damage to a summer cottage that caught fire Tuesday night on Shore Road.

William Wyman, alerted to the fire at John Riley’s home, used a garden hose to partially knock it down, according to Phippsburg Fire Chief James Totman.

Firefighters then arrived shortly after 8:30 and had the fire out about an hour later, Totman said.

Riley, who was home at the time, was not injured.

“He held it until we got there,” Totman said of Wyman. “We were able to save it.”

Totman said he is virtually certain that electrical problems caused the fire. It caused most of its damage — perhaps $10,000 to $12,000 — to the open-ceiling dining and living room and its pine paneling, he said.

“We tore out one wall pretty bad, and there was water damage,” the chief said. “But there was no damage to the other rooms.”

Crews from Arrowsic, Bath, West Bath and Woolwich covered for the Phippsburg crew, Totman said.

lgrard@timesrecord.com

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