Within hours of a fire’s destruction of a mobile home Tuesday morning in Monmouth, friends and co-workers were trying to raise money for a family of five left homeless and without any Christmas presents, less than a week before the holiday.

No one was at home and no one was hurt fighting the fire, which was called in about 8 a.m. by a neighbor who saw flames under the home, said Monmouth Assistant Fire Chief Ed Pollard.

By 9:30 a.m., firefighters had extinguished most of the fire and were sorting through the wreckage, looking for any lingering hot spots, Pollard said.

At its height, the fire engulfed the home.

“You had a column of heavy black smoke that was well above the tree line here,” Pollard said.

The home was owned by Aaron Chase, an emergency medical technician who was out of town at the time of the fire, Pollard said.

Chase, who arrived at the scene later, said he lived there with four other people: his girlfriend and three children.

Chase said he was feeling shock about the loss.

By 11 a.m., however, friends and co-workers had created an online fundraiser on GoFundMe to raise money for Chase and his family, and the Winthrop Ambulance Service had linked to the fundraiser from its Facebook page.

“This morning, a friend and co-worker of mine lost his house and all his belongings in a fire,” wrote Samantha Massey, who created the online fundraiser. “I know he is a proud man and wouldn’t ask for help. So I decided to do it for him.”

In a Facebook post linking to the fundraiser, a representative from the Winthrop Ambulance Service wrote that Chase “lost his home and all possessions, including all Christmas presents, to a fire. Please share this post and consider donating anything that may help in their time of need.”

The post listed several sizes of clothing that could be donated to the family and directed inquiries to Deputy Chief Joshua Wheeler of the Winthrop Ambulance Service at 377-7220.

At the fire scene, Chase said his home was insured and several people had offered him places to stay.

A cat living in the home wasn’t accounted for Tuesday morning, Pollard said.

A next-door neighbor, Joan Gray, said she reported the fire after seeing flames coming out of the bottom of the home.

Pollard said that he did not know the cause of the fire, and that the State Fire Marshal’s Office would be notified, as is standard.

The temperature was just climbing out of the single digits Tuesday morning in Monmouth. The cold weather did not hinder the response, but it did create several challenges for the firefighters. Some of the Monmouth firefighters were working on less than a full night of sleep, since they had responded to a chimney fire around 11:30 p.m. Monday, Chief Dan Roy said.

Charles Eichacker can be contacted at 621-5642 or at:

ceichacker@centralmaine.com

Twitter: ceichacker