Mike Jewell (pictured) and his daughter, Meagan, 21, and their dog, Deja, lost their home at 26 Bird Hill Road on Saturday in a fire. He said he will likely have to tear it down. Rose Lincoln
GREENWOOD — “Thank god for them and the job they did,” Mike Jewell said of the firefighters who put out the fire in his chimney. He was napping with his dog, Deja, when a neighbor woke him.
Jewell, his dog and his daughter, Meagan, lost their Bird Hill Road house to a fire on Saturday.
“I think my only option is to tear it down. There’s nothing salvageable there. The whole second floor is gone,” said Jewell, noting that he may be able to save the attached barn.
Greenwood Fire Chief Ken Cole said he was grateful for the 40 firefighters from Greenwood, Bethel, Newry, Mexico, Woodstock, West Paris, and South Paris who responded to the fully engulfed fire. The state fire marshal helped with the investigation and determined the house is not salvageable. He said the roof was wooden shingles capped over with asphalt shingles, two or three levels of false ceilings.
“The fire gets in between those three levels and just runs rampant,” Cole said.
Firefighters knocked down the fire at 6:03 p.m. but had to do extensive overhaul with pike poles because of hot spots. “We pulled back into our station around 9,” Cole said.
Insurance had canceled Jewell in January because he wouldn’t paint the house.
“It’s ridiculous to paint the house before putting windows in, which I was working on,” he said. He makes his living as a carpenter.
He wasn’t sure of the exact age of the Cape Cod style home but knew it had been built in Gilead and transported to Greenwood sometime in the 1900s.
Mike and Meagan Jewell, and dog, Deja, lost their home at 26 Bird Hill Road on Saturday in a fire. Meagan, 21, is staying with her friend, Isabell Jack, left, of Buckfield. Rose Lincoln
Early Monday morning on the second floor of the charred home, Meagan Jewell, 21 and her friend, Isabell Jack, 19 of Buckfield were sifting through rubble in Meagan’s bedroom.
She found her melted Canon Power Shot camera. She noted that her television and everything from her bathroom was ruined. Her new Gymshark leggings are salvageable, maybe. Her pink porcelain piggy bank seemed fine, but when she looked closer, she saw that it was melted, too.
Her bed is buried under part of the roof. “My laptop was on my bed,” she said.
She smiled a little when she opened a small box. “It’s melted, but it is still intact. My dad made that for me when I was a kid. I didn’t get it until I was 18,” she said of a green-gemmed ring.
Meagan was out with friends Saturday when the fire started. Her grandmother, Patricia Jewell, of Porter, called her to tell her the news.
For now, Meagan will stay with her friend, Isabell, while Mike is living at nearby Northern Roots Grow Supply.
“Nick Bartlett [the owner] is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet,” Jewell said, “one of the best people I have met in my life.”
A friend stopped by in his truck and asked Jewell if he needed a small utility trailer. “I don’t have much, but you’re more than welcome to whatever I’ve got,” the friend said.
“I’ll be all right. I’ll get by,” Jewell said.
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