A fire heavily damaged a three-unit apartment building on Munjoy Hill in Portland on Monday night, but the fire chief said all of the 13 residents have been accounted for and there were no injuries.
The three-alarm blaze at 6 Cumberland Ave. was reported around 8 p.m., according to the Portland Police Department.
“There are a bunch of people displaced,” Portland Fire Chief David Jackson said.
By 9 p.m., the fire appeared to be mostly under control. Jackson couldn’t say yet how and where the fire started in the building, but the investigation should be complete in one or two days.
Yolanda Costa, 44, and her daughter Maria Kelenda, 16, were waiting for Red Cross assistance across the street from their smoldering apartment. They lived on the second floor, upstairs from where they said the fire started.
“My sister was in the kitchen and she saw smoke,” Kelenda said. “When we came out of the stairs, we saw smoke and could not see the way. I was so scared. I thought I was dying.”
The family escaped without injury and said their neighbors were also unhurt.
Costa and her four teenagers came to Maine three years ago. They are originally from Angola in southwest Africa.
“I’m just worried about my children’s documents,” such as ID cards, Costa said.
Huddled in a borrowed coat, the mother wondered when she would be allowed inside to see what remains of their home.
“We don’t have anything,” Kelenda said.
Karen Daigler lives several houses down from the fire.
“I was sitting in my living room and saw the lights,” she said.
When she went outside, she saw flames coming out of one of the buildings on the next block and was worried the fire would spread.
“These buildings are kind of close together,” she noted.
Jaylin McPhail walked up the hill from her home to check on friends. None live in the apartment building where the fire broke out, but she thinks a few were evacuated from nearby buildings.
“I messaged them but they were OK,” she said, watching from a nearby intersection.
The fire melted the siding and damaged several neighboring apartment buildings, but the fire chief expected those residents would be allowed to return to their homes Monday night.
During the winter, Jackson advised Portland residents to shovel all exits and entrances to their homes in case of a fire.
“All those doors, we need to get in as much as they need to get out,” he said.
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