Officials from the Maine Fire Marshal’s Office were still looking Tuesday into the cause of a weekend house fire in Boothbay that killed two people.

Fire Marshal Joe Thomas said investigators from his office had interviewed the four survivors of the fire on Pleasant Cove Road, and investigators planned to comb through the wreckage Tuesday to look for more clues. Firefighters said they the blaze so intense that they couldn’t get inside the house, which was built in 1935. Investigators have said previously that they believe the fire started just before 8 a.m. Sunday in the first-floor living room, but a cause was not immediately determined.

The two men who died, Baldomero “Bart” Zamora, 50, and Lucas Farias, 23, were found in upstairs bedrooms and 48-year-old Julie Gilbert, who is Zamora’s girlfriend and Farias’ mother, escaped by jumping from a second-floor window. She was listed in fair condition Tuesday at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

A woman and her two children who were downstairs when the fire broke out managed to escape with minor injuries.

Thomas said all of the people in the house said they lived in Chicago, although Gilbert had grown up in Damariscotta.

He said fire investigators would be looking for the presence of smoke detectors and would try to determine if they had been working. Mary Lewis, whose son and daughter-in-law, Troy and Tina Lewis, own the house, said it was equipped with detectors.

Advertisement

Lewis, who said she sometimes helps with rental arrangements for the house, said it had been listed through the online rental site Airbnb.

She said she didn’t know many of the details of last weekend’s rental arrangement, but said the house had been booked through Monday for the Columbus Day holiday.

Lewis said the couple had been trying to sell the house for more than six months, after they built another house nearby and moved there. She said they built the new house so they would have features to accommodate a child with disabilities.

The three-bedroom house on Pleasant Cove Road has been listed on the market for $142,000 through a local real estate agency.

The property had been fairly popular on Airbnb, Lewis said, with steady rentals in August and September.

Art Dunlap, a code enforcement officer for Boothbay, said the town doesn’t regulate Airbnb rentals or have any special rules for homes that are rented out on short-term arrangements.

Investigators indicated that the survivors of the fire said the house had been rented for a belated birthday party for Zamora, who turned 50 last month.

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.